Dark Claim
by Jamille Shane
Summary: This is the second full story after Dark Sanctum. Natalia, a college student, is pursuing a singing career during summer break. While her band is on the road, she runs into a Hunter that has been searching for her for hundreds of years. He thinks he is entitled to her love. Will Ragnar learn how to bring about her happiness? Or will he stifle the love that has yet to grow?
1. Chapter 1

_A/N - The events of this story take place four years after Dark Promise. You met Natalia at the very end of Dark Sanctum. Consider this story the stuff that happens after Dark Promise and then after I'm done with it, I will go back and reopen Dark Promise and continue Lena's story from there._

_Lena is in this story, but Natalia is the main character since it is her and her Hunter that happen to be the main focus of the story. I'm still trying to figure some of this vibe out, but the story starts off a little slow in the beginning. Bear with me, please._

* * *

Natalia Rosa Rivera showed up at Lena's house bright and early that Saturday morning. She could still remember what the old house used to look like. It had been a little blue thing with two stories and a drafty basement. And then Andriev had arrived in Danica's life.

He had had some serious money because now the house was totally remodeled. It had been made into three stories, for starters, but the inside had been altered ridiculously: Italian marble tile, crown molding and deep well chosen colors. Paintings and sculptures, as well as other forms of fine art and the best furniture money could have custom made. It looked to her, in one word: Rich.

Though Andriev and Danica still got into debates about the paintings on the wall, the place looked more than well put-together. It looked like a home. There had also been a huge gate and shrubs installed around the entire property. Andriev had purchased the abandoned house right next door all those years ago and only last year had gotten around to taking the property gate and shrubs and expanding them to include the other property. The workmen had just finished renovating that other home since Andriev, apparently, planned to use it as a guesthouse for whenever anyone from The Dark Troubadors or when any other Carpathian couples, like Manolito and MaryAnn, came to visit.

Natalia rang the bell and waited. It was still a little chilly out despite it being the end of spring. It looked like it was going to be one of those years where summer straggled in kind of late. But once it got going, she knew it was going to be really hot, humid and stuffy as any other usual New York summer.

The housekeeper that kept an eye on Lena in the daytime, even though she was in college now, answered the door. Marietta smiled widely, her ample bosom straining at her apron. "Come on in, Nat," said the woman with her heavy southern accent. "I'm trying to bake up these pies for you girls party."

Natalia's grin was instant. "You're going to make them?"

"Of course I'm going to make some pies for my girls!" she exclaimed with a huge smile and a laugh. "Get in here and give me some sugar!"

Natalia happily walked into the home and hugged Marietta and let the older black woman kiss her cheeks like she was a brand name going out of style. The woman had been a God-send for her and Lena. Lena had her own stuff she'd struggled with through the years, but Natalia's issue had been a case of near neglect. Her mother hadn't kept an eye on her as much as she should have and as a result Natalia was headed for becoming a statistic when Marietta landed in her life. As a result, Natalia spent a lot of her time over at Lena's house and was basically swallowed up by their family, their dynamic… and their secrets. It was nearly unavoidable to learn it all since she was 'strange' in her own way. And just like Lena, she had taken it all in stride with an understanding of how important it was to keep her mouth shut. In return, she was given a lot more attention there than she had been given at home. And her parents seemed to be grateful that she was out of their hair.

"Go on up to Lena's room and see if she's up yet," said Marietta. "You two come on into the kitchen later and help me with the food."

"Thanks, Miss Mari," Natalia called her by the shortened name both girls had come up with for her when she'd first shown up. She ran up the steps and went down the hall that was longer than it used to be and knocked on her friend's door. "You awake, Lena?"

"Come in," said a sleepy voice.

Natalia opened her door and stepped into the room that had almost doubled in size after renovations. Lena was in college, the same as Nat, but her room still looked rather girlish. Half the room had a vanity and walk-in closet while the other half of the room sported sci-fi/fantasy and video game posters of Mass Effect and Final Fantasy. Andriev had put his foot down about her hanging Legacy of Kain posters.

Her friend was sitting up in bed, groggy. "What time is it?" she asked, bleary eyed.

"Nine o'clock. Am I too early?"

"Nah," Lena shook her head. "Thanks for coming now. I'd have just kept on sleeping and I promised Aunt Mari I'd help her with the stuff in the kitchen at noon. I'm getting up now." She struggled up out of bed and stumbled into her bathroom.

Natalia sat at Lena's vanity and looked at herself. She studied her reflection from several angles then started messing around with her long dark brown hair. "You think it's a good idea to have this get-together with our study group? I mean… most of them are okay."

"You talking about Jane, right?" Lena said from behind the bathroom door.

Natalia flinched. She couldn't stand that girl, not even the sound of her name. From the time their group had begun their study sessions the year before, everyone realized that Jane was a little bit of a drama queen. At first, it was nothing too over the top. But as time went on, it was obvious to everyon that she had a real problem with Natalia in particular. Lena had wanted to put her out of the group, but Natalia insisted she was fine and could handle her.

Studying was one thing, but socializing? "I don't know what her problem is with me. It's like she sees me and she just—she just gets nasty. What's up with that?"

Lena exclaimed from behind the door, "You're prettier than her! She hates you for that!"

Natalia laughed. "Yeah, a fat chick with hazel eyes. Pretty."

"Would you shut up!" Lena thundered at her. "Thin is not the be-all end-all of beautiful."

They had had this conversation already more than once. "Whatever. Did you finish that poem yet?" she asked, changing the subject.

"Check my desk notebook. I already told you, though, I can't write poetry for nothing, so don't expect anything great."

Natalia went over to Lena's desk and opened the binder. She began reading and nodding, the words instantly playing out like lyrics in her mind and she couldn't help but sing them:

"'_Sounds of the warm East Wind_

_Your hand at my chin_

_I'll wait for you…_

_I'm still waiting for you_

_As the sun we forsake_

_The second half of my heart you make_

_It's waiting for you…_

_I'm still waiting for you—'_"

Lena came rushing out of the bathroom then. "That's not the one!"

"I like it!"

"You can't have it!" she said, a little bit angry.

Natalia looked at Lena then and realized what this was. "East wind," she translated it into Spanish, "'_Solano'_! As in Armand Solano-" She shook her head as her expression fell. "I'm sorry." She felt awful!

Lena sat down on her bed in a huff, half dressed. "I'm sorry, too. I shouldn't have gotten angry like that. You didn't know it was the wrong notebook. I should never have left it there, anyway."

Natalia sat next to her. "It's really _good_. I can take this and change it a tiny bit, make it into a song. The band would love it."

"Ah, the band!" Lena laughed as she got up and went into her walk-in closet to finish getting dressed.

"Are you _sure_ you don't want to become a back-up singer and dancer?"

"Girl, I can dance," she said from inside her closet, "but I sure cannot sing. Not unless you're trying to attract dogs to your act who want to howl along with me!" She laughed out loud at herself.

"Your singing is not that bad," Natalia insisted. "You just need some time with a vocal coach."

"Is that code for 'your ass can't sing?'"

"Promise me this. You'll be an alternative back-up for the back-up?"

Lena obviously didn't think anything would come of it. "Sure," she shrugged haphazardly. "Why not?"

##

The two girls went down into the kitchen and helped Miss Marietta for the rest of the afternoon, baking and cooking for their get-together. Around 7 o'clock Andriev himself appeared in the kitchen and gave both girls kisses about the forehead. "Are you two young ladies ready to leave in half an hour?" he asked them since he was going to drive them there and help set up.

Both girls giggled as they instantly turned 14 again every time he showed up at the beginning of every evening. "Yes!" they both said in sing-song unison.

Marietta grinned. "They been really good in this kitchen! Made a lot less work for me by helping, I can say that."

"Danica says she shall help you clean up," said Andriev as he began looking for the keys to the van.

"Let Monty drive you there," said Marietta as she shooed him out of her kitchen. "Get outta here now, Andy!" she called him by her little nickname, "Or I'll swat your backside!"

Andriev gave the housekeeper a quick kiss to the cheek. He loved the old couple very much and already his heart ached that they were so close to being gone from his life so soon. He made certain to enter their bodies as pure energy and check up on them on a regular basis while they slept, made certain their arteries and hearts functioned at peak efficiency, made certain their brains continued to run smoothly. Already he had prevented a heart attack in Monty, a stroke in Marietta and a host of other maladies that had attempted to creep in and debilitate the old couple.

They would stay here with them as long as he could hold them to this side of life.

##

The girls sat in the back of the vehicle talking as Monty drove them downtown. Andriev sat next to the older man in the front passenger seat.

Everyone could smell the freshly cooked food in the trunk. "That food smells so good!" exclaimed Natalia.

"I know," Lena agreed. "I can't wait to eat that macaroni salad."

Natalia sucked her teeth. "I hope Jane keeps her mouth shut tonight."

"You know what I said about that girl!" Monty interjected with his rapid southern cadence of speech and while laughing. "Just slap her in the face and run!"

Both young ladies laughed out loud. "The campus has a no-violence policy," Natalia informed him. "So I can't do that."

"Well you can't say Uncle Monty didn't try to help!" he laughed.

Andriev shook his head. He was still having a difficult time grasping some of this centuries humor, what was said in jest or what was meant as sarcasm. He was very concerned, however, about this situation involving Natalia. From what he could deduce from her memories, this young lady Jane had been nearly vitriolic in her hatred for her. She had been a little slighting toward Lena, but Natalia seemed to get the brunt of Jane's ire. It wouldn't be a big deal except for the fact that Jane's father contributed a large chunk of money toward the college every year and she seemed to think she owned the establishment, as a result. Andriev had also contributed funds, but not so much that it drew attention to him or his family. That was a no-no.

He thought of what Lena maintained the real problem was. Jane was simply jealous of her best friend. He had to admit that Natalia was a very lovely and gregarious young lady. His Lena was still pretty standoffish toward those she didn't know well, but once she warmed up to someone, she was hilarious. Put the two girls together and it was one joke after another. He knew that when Natalia showed up to events, she very quickly and unintentionally became almost like the life of the party. Perhaps, he thought to himself, this Jane was lacking friends and envious of their friendship? Or perhaps she was envious of the people Natalia was able to naturally draw to her? That piece of Natalia's magnetism, he realized, was a part of her telepathic talents. There were so many reasons this Jane could have for disliking Natalia. But for now, he simply didn't know.

So he decided that for that night he would accompany the girls and see for himself the situation with this Jane.


	2. Chapter 2

Andriev helped them set up the food in the common area where they were having their get-together. Already three of their study partners had arrived. They were still awaiting the arrival of two others and the infamous Jane.

Chairs were put out and the five that were already there -his girls, two guys and another girl- began going over the food, making plates. They all talked companionably and he noticed one of the young men by the name of George Arlen was paying Natalia a particular amount of attention, smiling at her, joking around a little too much, sitting close to her. He checked Natalia's mind and saw she was not at all interested in the young man, they were just friends from her point of view.

The young man was tall and well built. Blond haired and blue eyed, he was very attractive to the other young ladies of the campus, most likely. And for Andriev, it started making sense now what this Jane's problem with Natalia might be.

"So how's your band going?" Arlen asked her.

Natalia grinned. "It's going good. We practice tomorrow night."

"You need another band member?" he asked with a charming smile. "I play bass."

Natalia just giggled. The band was made up of herself, two members of Marietta's family and two other humans that were directly related to others in the tri-state area that served Carpathians as daytime domestic help. It was a long story about how they wound up putting their music skills together, but it was quickly turning into a very satisfying creative outlet and venture. And no one else was allowed in. It was partly why she really wanted Lena to join. She was her best friend and they'd done everything together up until then. They planned on going on the road for the first time that summer and she wanted Lena to come with them. "We already have a bass player," she informed George with a charming smile and laugh, "but thanks."

"Hey what's the name of the band?" asked Lucinda, the other girl that was already there. She had been talking with Lena, but perked up when she heard talk of the band.

"'Eclectic'," Natalia answered.

"That's phat!" James Norris declared, an average height black young man with a mini afro.

"Who's using slang in this fine educational institution?" Jane asked as she swept into through the door of their meeting place as if she owned it. She was tall and thin but curvy. She always looked well put together from her well styled head down to her manicured toes.

James waved her comment off. "I'm going to get some more of this food. Put some in your face, Jane, and maybe shut up a little while."

The girl in question shook her head. "Well I can say whatever I want because my father-"

"'—practically owns this place'," everyone else intonated with her and then burst into laughter that they had all said it at the same time. It was the line they all heard at least twice a week and they were sick of it. She got into a huff then and stormed off to look at the food table.

The last two young men they had been waiting for arrived and went straight for the food. The group sat together after that and they all conversed about different study strategies for their next big test.

Andriev couldn't help but notice during that conversation how nasty Jane was being to all of the girls, but he saw that she did pay special attention to Natalia with her spiteful words. He touched the girl's mind lightly and confirmed it did indeed have to do with George Arlen. Anytime the young man said anything to Natalia, Jane would interrupt her answer by butting in and saying something to speak over her. After a while, Natalia just stood and went to the food table and stood with Andriev for a couple of minutes, not saying a word.

"Why are you not with your friends?" Andriev finally asked her after a short time. He didn't want her to know that he had cautiously picked her brain on several occasions. He didn't want to alarm her.

"Because the school has a no-violence policy and I'm close to violating it," she said. She had lost her appetite already on account of that mean girl. "I'm just standing here counting to fifty before I go back."

Lena walked over then. "You all right?"

Natalia just shook her head. She was having thoughts she wasn't too proud of at the moment. "Nah, but it'll pass. I'm just sick of this now," she admitted. "I'm tired of mean girls. I think I just want to go home."

Andriev saw Jane coming toward the food table. "Girls, you will go and sit down and I promise you, the night will be much more pleasant from this moment onward. Only do as I say this instant, do you understand?"

They knew what he was about to do, grinned at each other and went to sit back down just as Jane reached the table.

The lovely blonde looked up at Andriev to grin at him. She knew he was disgustingly rich. She also knew he was married, but to her that was not an obstacle. As soon as her eyes made contact with his, however, she was being given new instructions, just for that night.

Everyone that evening was surprised at how well-behaved Jane was for the rest of the evening. She wasn't being nasty to any of the other girls anymore and had stopped her sniping verbal attacks on Natalia. Everyone relaxed and enjoyed themselves and the study group simply ate and listened to music and planned their study sessions for the next few weeks to come.


	3. On The Road

Time passed. Finals came and went. Tests were passed -in some cases, not- projects were handed in and the summer break from college began.

Practice and performances for the band, Eclectic, went into overdrive.

"I can't find my eyeshadow!" Natalia was shouting as she ran from Lena's room and went running down the stairs.

"It's right here," Lena said as she put it straight into her friend's hand. Poor Natalia had been a nervous wreck all week. They were going to be performing at some dive that weekend, yet again, but this time someone from The Dark Troubadors was going to be there to watch them. Lena had been able to pull a few strings -which meant begging and pleading- in order to get Dayan or Barack to go by and watch her friend's band. The final straw had come when Lena had called Desari personally and charmed her into talking to Darius whom had told the men to go and see the act. To them she was still 'little Lena' though she was all of 21 years and it took talking to Desari to get anything done. Natalia's best friend figured she didn't have to be in the band to help them, so she did. It made her feel good to do something for people she loved. And she loved every member of that band.

There was James and Jewel, a set of fraternal twins, brother and sister, with the same deep black hair and ice blue eyes. James was on drums and Jewel was on bass. The guitarist was a nearly silent young man named Steve. He had long, thick curly hair he kept in a ponytail. He seemed to have an aptitude with the guitar as if it were a living person. Finally, there were the cousins, Tanya and Derek, Marietta's niece and nephew. Tanya was a tall willowy black girl with very long micro braids and an infectious smile. And though Natalia was lead singer, Tanya's cousin Derek, a back-up singer on keyboard, would come to the front and do vocals for certain songs at times. Derek was also very tall with dark skin and light brown eyes. Any time they did a gig, the girls were screaming over either him or James. Steve had a couple of fans but he avoided the ladies, and everyone else for that matter, at all costs.

The trailer hitch attached to the tour van was stocked full of instruments and extra junk. The band had been playing nothing but small gigs on the weekends throughout the New York, New Jersey, Connecticut tri-state area for months, by then. It was time now to go on tour for real and they had already booked up enough gigs for the next month-and-a-half as it was. They even had a small-time agent/manager who was interested in their bottom line so he could also get paid.

Lena wasn't 'in' the band, though, no matter how much Natalia had begged her. But she was going with them for backup support, to help drive, help them pack and unpack, to help set up before shows and help put things away after shows. She would also sell the CDs they had pressed themselves… being a roadie wasn't on her 'life's ambitions' list, but she found she liked it very much. It kept her mind off of things. When she was in school, she was able to bury herself in her studies. But school was out now and she needed a new outlet to concentrate on. She knew it wouldn't be healthy for her to sit at home that summer, maybe falling into a funk, without Natalia's company. And the band was that outlet.

All of the ladies, Lena, Tanya and Jewel, were packing up the van and talking together as Natalia stood there with Mike, their agent/manager, and went over the stops they were going to make. "You go here first, right?" Mike was saying.

"Right," agreed Natalia.

"And your next stop is here," he pointed.

"Correct."

At the same time, the guys were busy being dressed down by Andriev. "Protect the girls," he was cautioning them. "Or I shall come for you myself."

"Would you stop it!" Lena said over her shoulder to her Uncle Andriev as the other girls started to snigger. "If anything, they should be helping us pack this freaking van!"

Talon, the Carpathian assigned to keep an eye on Natalia all of those years ago, arrived then. The band would never know he was tailing them. He was being joined by another unattached Carpathian by the name of Simon. The two of them were supposed to shadow the band through the entire touring process. Andriev had not been the only one to insist on this.

The fact that Natalia and Lena were both going was more than enough. But Jewel, they realized after a short time, was also some kind of telepath. No one had spoken to her about it because she honestly didn't know she was giving off some kind of low level 'hum'. She knew who the Carpathians were, of course, since her parents served one of the families down in Georgia, but they didn't want to alarm her with the abilities she didn't even realize she had. Simon was the brother of the man her family served and though he was old and had no emotion, his loyalty to his brother caused him to want to make certain nothing harmed Jewel while she was on the road.

Andriev was now going into his wallet and calling Lena over. It was killing him on the inside to let her go like this, but he knew she needed to do it. "Take this," he said as he pulled a card out of his wallet. "You may fuel up anywhere, at anytime with it."

She grinned nice and wide and took it from him as she hopped up and down, "Oh, thanks!"

"And this," he said as he pressed another card into her hand. "It is to make certain you young people eat on a regular basis."

"You don't need to do that," protested James as he quickly stuck his head between the two of them. "I've saved like $500," he said, his blue eyes filled with pride.

"I've saved some money, too!" interjected Derek from across the garage space.

"I am certain you have all saved your money, and that was most prudent of you," said Andriev as he looked around at the eager young faces. "But please, for my sake, take these things in case your money runs out."

They all looked at one another. He really meant it. "Okay, Uncle Andriev, we'll take it just in case," Lena said as she shrugged and took the extra card from out of his hand.

Their agent/manager Mike called, "Shotgun!" and sat in the passenger side of their vehicle. He had used his artistic side and done a mural on the van of various instruments with the word 'Eclectic!' emblazoned on it. Andriev had, of course, checked his mind and saw the man was a serious money grubber, but he meant well overall for the young people and would stick with them throughout the entire tour.

Everyone gave hugs and kisses to Marietta and her husband Monty as they came out of the house to see them off. The girls all hugged Danica as the guys shook Andriev's hand.

Danica's hug for Lena was particularly long. She found it difficult to let her niece go as tears filled her eyes. She handed her over to Andriev then as she pulled Natalia into a hug next.

"Please, be very careful," Andriev insisted to both girls as he held onto Lena extra tight.

"Please," Danica began, "now this is for everyone in the group," she said to them all. "Now don't think I'm harping, but I'm begging, please remain dressed at all times!" Danica was cautioning as she held Natalia's hands and looked at all of the young people.

"_Daniiiiii_!" protested Lena, horrified and embarrassed, as Natalia laughed out loud with hilarity.

They all loaded into the van in the dark of night then, Lena in the driver's seat, as Mike activated the GPS and began punching in their first motel stop three hours away.

"Be well, young ones!" Andriev said as Lena started up the van.

Danica added, "And-"

"'Don't get naked!'" Natalia said at the same time as the rest of the van began to laugh uproariously.

"We do have to take showers, Dani," said Steve very seriously as the van pulled off and everyone then laughed at that. "But how _would_ you take a shower with all of your clothes on?" the Carpathian couple could hear Steve asking as the van pulled away.

Everyone left behind remained standing outside as the van traveled down the road. Then Andriev turned and looked at Simon and Talon, nodded once at them. Both Carpathian males put one hand over their hearts, bowed and then took to the sky and followed the van as they shifted into birds of prey.

##

They checked into the motel. It was clean even though it was cheap. They had two rooms directly across the hall from one another. The girls slept in one while the guys occupied another.

The hum of conversation followed the young people as they unhitched the trailer and pulled every single item out of it and into the third room which belonged to Mike.

Each room contained two double beds. Natalia had one of them all to herself. Tanya and Jewel shared the other one. Lena took one of the fold-up portable beds they traveled with into the hotel room and planted it along the wall for herself to sleep in it. Due to her past, she was still unable to share a bed with anyone no matter who it was. She did not want anyone to touch her while she slept, not even by accident.

In the other room, Steve took the other portable fold-up bed. He didn't like people touching him, period. That was just his thing. Derek slept in one double bed and James in the other.

Before they went to bed that night the band had a quiet impromptu practice session where they whisper sang their vocals and Steve silently strummed his unplugged guitar. Afterward, the group picked at some of the junk food stash they had brought along and then everyone drifted off to their respective sleeping places, one by one. The last two up, as usual, were Natalia and Lena.

"Are you nervous?" asked Lena.

Natalia knew what she meant. The crowd they were going to sing for the following night was not in the most quality establishment. They had pulled out their best rocking cover tunes, but she honestly didn't know what they were going to get as far as reaction. "Yeah," she admitted as her hazel eyes clouded over with concern. "But I'm ready for this."

"Good for you!" Lena nodded happily. "I'm so freaking proud of you!"

"For what? I haven't done anything yet."

"You know how many people want to do what you're doing now?"

"What?" joked Natalia. "Sleep in a motel room with a bunch of friends the night before a gig in a dive?"

"Yes!" Lena insisted with wide eyes. "It may not be that big a deal, but you're living somebodies dream at this very moment." She nodded happily. "This is a powerful moment for you!"

"You're so positive, I could slap you!" joked Natalia as both girls burst into silent giggles.

"Go to sleep, hookers!" mumbled Tanya with a half laugh.

"Shut up, ho!" Lena laughed in return. "She's right, we should go to bed."

"Yeah, we should. Good night, Lena."

"Night, Natalia."

##

Talon sat vigil on the roof of the motel as Simon flew overhead, continually scanning the area. He would check Lena and Natalia's mental defenses from time to time, just to be certain they remained untouched from any external forces. He knew Simon did the same for Jewel on a regular basis. It was unwise, in his opinion, to allow so many females with these abilities out on their own. But he was not their owner. He knew that Lena's slept in the Earth, waiting. He wondered if either Natalia or Jewel had lifemates out there, somewhere. Perhaps he himself did, perhaps he did not, but protecting these young people kept his mind off of that particular conundrum.

A more troublesome thought kept intervening. Undead would be attracted to this group in droves. He knew that from time to time one of the males of The Dark Troubadors would check in on and trail them. Most of them would never know how protected they were. And he hoped it remained that way.


	4. Watch Your Back

It was the rush before having to go onstage. Every time Natalia felt it, she thought she might throw up. But she never did.

She looked at herself in the mirror. Her hair looked exactly how she wanted it to. She wished she could have lost a little more weight before going out there, but she was always down on her weight. Her outfit, according to Lena, was 'perfect'. The turquoise shirt brought up a bluish quality in her hazel eyes. Her almost sand colored hair was styled to perfection with so much mousse she knew it would take ten minutes straight to rinse and wash it out properly. But right now, what was important was that opening number.

Natalia heard a knock on the door and Mike's voice, "You're on in two." She forced herself up and out of the chair and to the door.

##

The band went on two minutes later in front of the little crowd in the bar and began to play their set. They started with an 80s tune from the movie Streets of Fire. The song was called 'Nowhere Fast' and the crowd loved it right from the start.

Natalia could see the reassuring face of Lena sitting out there with Mike. Was that Dayan from The Dark Troubadors sitting with her? There was no time to think about it. As she continued to sing, time passed and little by little, her stomach settled and her nerves abated. They went right into song number two.

For their third song, Derek and her sang the slow ballad together 'Can't We Try?', another 80s tune. She felt a light thrill in her stomach as couples got onto the floor and began to dance together slowly. Her face flooded with red as she looked over at Derek and he grinned at her in happy satisfaction as he continued to sing along with her. It was that thrill each of them lived for. It was synergy. It was a little dive of a place, but that synergy was happening here. And even though it had taken Lena some serious begging and cajoling, Dayan was out there in the audience. The Dark Troubador member was trying to hide it, but he loved what he heard.

##

"You guys did great!" Mike gushed as he hugged each of them one by one. He was bursting with serious approval. "We got paid!" he crowed. "And it was enough to cover your hotel bills and food for this coming week."

"You mean we broke even for once?" asked Natalia with wide eyes.

"You guys broke even for the week and _early_!"

The band cheered and began jumping up and down in exaltation in the parking lot of the dive they had just exited. Lena was bringing out the last guitar with Steve and she was grabbed by the girls as they all jumped up and down.

"What?" she asked, wanting to hear the good news.

"We broke even!"

"Woo!" she cheered as she loaded the guitar into the trailer hitch.

"Does that mean I can go to Target now?" asked Steve almost cheerfully as he made eye contact with no one. "I need a few things and I haven't been able to go to Target for over a week now."

Everyone knew what that meant. Steve had a Target obsession and needed to make it there sometimes as much as three times a week. "All right, Steve. Target, tomorrow morning, first thing," said Mike. "I'll bring you myself."

He gave off a tiny smile as he started securing all of the equipment in the trailer hitch. "Target," he whispered to himself happily.

##

Dayan stood on the roof of the dive with Talon and Simon. "They're actually pretty good," said the member of The Dark Troubadors. "Has there been any trouble so far since they started this tour?"

Simon was the one that answered. "We have had to dispatch with one undead attracted to the mass of telepathic females in the group."

"Oh?" Dayan said. "I will convey this to Darius."

"It is unnecessary," Talon insisted in his emotionless voice. "We will make certain Natalia and the others are protected at all times."

Dayan admitted, "There is a disturbing development, of late. Groups of undead have been traveling together in sort of roving bands."

Talon frowned. "That is highly… unusual."

"Yes. It is the concern of Darius that two hunters may be overpowered against multiple rivals. And if even just one of these females is taken, that would be a tragic circumstance."

"We agree," Simon nodded. "Some hunter's future lifemate could be killed in the process."

"And lastly," said Dayan, "someone we have from inside the Morrison Group has informed us that they've turned their attention to this band. They hear that they travel and work at night."

Talon scoffed, "Does it not occur to them that their human sleep schedules have simply been turned upside down by their life on the road?"

Dayan shook his head. "No. They are bent on hatred and see shadows where there are none."

"What conclusion have Darius and Julian come to?" asked Talon since he knew Julian was kin to Andriev and very concerned for Lena in particular.

"I do believe once I return to my group and give them my assessment of their talents, they will be asked to travel with us as a cover band. It would be to their distinct advantage since it would be more hunters to protect them as well as safety in numbers." Dayan turned and looked down at the group piling into the van. "They are all aware of who and what we are and are more acclimated than any other humans to live in our company. I shall go now and discuss this with Darius and Desari."

##

As promised, Mike took Steve to Target first thing in the morning. Lena went along with them to keep an eye on Steve and Natalia went to pick up several items for the group.

When they reached a section of items that Steve really wanted, he began to flap his hands just the slightest bit in happiness before picking up four new notebooks. What was going on with him clicked in Natalia's mind just then. "He's on the spectrum," she whispered to Mike.

"That, he is," said the older man.

The two girls left Mike and Steve in that aisle. "Have you been boosting his tolerance of sensory input?" asked Natalia of Lena in a low whisper after the two girls rounded a corner.

"Yep."

"I didn't know you could do that," Natalia said.

"I didn't know either until I found myself just doing it one day," Lena shrugged. She was so busy opening perfume bottles and sniffing at each one, she didn't notice that Natalia was looking back at something. Lena did a double-take at her. She could feel her friend was suddenly tense. _What is it?_ She asked her, mind to mind. They didn't communicate that way very often, but it was useful in emergencies.

Natalia answered the way Lena had taught her many years before—_That man that just left this aisle and went into the next one? I think he's following us. I think he shot a picture of us with his camera phone._

The two girls looked at one another, now a little bit spooked. Lena cleared her throat and handed her a perfume. "Try this one."

Natalia smelled it and then shook her head. "Too sweet."

"There's another one in the next aisle I think you should try," said Lena.

"Let's do that."

They moved over into the next aisle and Lena saw a man standing there who seemed to be trying to decide between shower gels. She didn't even want to try to touch his mind and figure out what was really going on with him. But he did have his phone in his hand. She wondered if he really had snapped a picture of them. Was it a fan? Or was it someone from The Morrison Group?

Natalia and her kneeled down then to try out some of the perfumes in that aisle, but they were really watching the man out of the corner of their eyes. He was on the tall side with dark, close-cropped hair, almost a buzz cut. He was wearing a very nice business suit. But he seemed to not be picking out a shower gel or much of anything. He was also watching them out of the corner of his eye.

Lena stood, fed up then. "Let's go," she said.

"I agree."

They collected Steve and Mike and went to the check-out counter.

After paying, they were on their way to their car when the man that had been following them, finally approached. "I don't want to bother you guys, but are you with the band, Eclectic?" he asked, halfway eager.

The girls heaved a sigh of relief as Steve said almost excitedly, "He knows the band."

Natalia smiled. "Yes, I'm Natalia and that's Steve, our guitarist. This is Mike, our manager."

Mike shook the man's hand enthusiastically. "Nice to meet you!" he said to him.

"And this is Lena, our multi-purpose roadie. We can't seem to get her onstage," Natalia jokingly complained with a grin.

"That's 'cause I can't sing," said Lena as she opened the van door and let Steve get in.

As they pulled off, the guy stood there and waved at them.

"He was rude," Steve said out of nowhere.

"Why do you say that?" asked Natalia.

"We told him our names and he didn't tell us his."

Natalia was a little bit shocked that she hadn't caught that fact.

* * *

_A/N - Small chapter, I know. But it was a set-up for the next chapter where lots of 'stuff' will occur AND you get to meet Ragnar, the Carpathian..._


	5. Siren Song

"How are you sittin' up in here eatin' _greens_, salad and stuff," laughed Derek as he stared at Natalia's plate.

The rest of the band members also laughed as Natalia told him, "Shut up!", a huge grin also on her face. She threw a small stray piece of salad at his head which he ducked. It just missed him.

They were the sole patrons sitting in an all-night diner after their latest gig. The first half of the night had been so-so. But then as it got later, a new slightly raucous crowd came in. It had given them a shot of energy since the new crowd seemed to enjoy their music immensely. They all suspected it had more to do with the alcohol content of the clientele of that particular establishment, but they were willing to walk away happy because they'd left the place feeling appreciated for their entertainment that night.

The band took up two booths. Derek and James sat on one side of one booth while Natalia and Tanya sat on the other side. Just behind them sat Steve and Lena on one side of their booth and Jewel and their managing agent Mike sat opposite them on the other side.

"See but that's making me depressed!" Derek said as he shook his head comically looking at Natalia's salad.

"Just eat your cheeseburger and leave that girl alone!" his cousin, Tanya, laughed.

"That's the point!" he said, as he laughed. "She's eating all healthy and I'm eating… this!" He held up his cheeseburger in one large hand. "Come on girl, you know you want a piece of this burger!"

"Yes, I do!" Natalia laughed, "But I'm trying to be good!"

"Don't be good!" James butt in. Both young men looked at one another, looked back at her and then declared, "Be bad!" at the same time.

They all giggled at that for a minute. Steve, in the booth right behind them, turned around. "You want some of my fries, Nat?" he asked very politely. "I have too many and you might still be hungry after that salad."

"No, sweetie, that's fine," she turned and said to him with a half smile. She looked back at Derek with a smile and joked, "You know, not everyone can be tall, dark, handsome and naturally thin!"

Derek jumped up out of the booth at that point and began doing Michael Jackson moves in the middle of the mostly empty diner. "That's right girl! Not everybody can be fine like me! Hee hee! Hoo hoo!"

"If you grab your junk in public," his cousin Tanya casually declared as she pushed her braids over her shoulder, "I'm going to come over there and slap the mess out of you!" The rest of the band members cracked up laughing. As Derek sat down quickly.

"When that girl says she's going to slap somebody, she really means she might slap somebody!" he said jokingly. All of their stomachs were hurting from laughter at that point.

Mike found himself very happy out on the road with these young people. His life had not been kind to him and this was turning out to be one of the best experiences he had ever had. "All right," he announced to them, trying to get them to think straight, "I want you all finished up and ready to go back to the hotel in half an hour," he said as he stood up to go to the bathroom. "We need to get some sleep, check out right before noon and then get on the road to our next gig."

All of the young adults laughingly indicated they understood in their own way in the manner they usually did whenever he made travel declarations. They all sang an in-harmony, "Yes, Miiiikeeeey!" and then burst into laughter. But they all did set themselves to finishing their food after that as they piped down.

He grinned and looked at them fondly and then went off to the restroom.

##

They got back to the hotel around 3:15 a.m. They were tired, but still pretty wired from the performance. They knew once they had their showers and settled down into bed they would sleep pretty well.

The girls all had their showers in their room and the guys had theirs in their room. By 3:45, pretty much everyone was chilling together in their pajamas in the guys' room, talking. Steve was falling asleep in his cot already while James lay on one of the double beds. Tanya was rubbing his feet while Natalia rubbed his head. Derek wassitting up on the other double bed as Jewel sat next to him, crossed legged. Lena sat on the floor writing out something or other as they all talked.

"Ladies!" Derek declared jokingly, "you should be rubbing ME like that. Why does James get all the good treatment? He certainly is _not_ as pretty as me!"

"Because he asked nicely," Natalia said simply.

Tanya laughed, "And since James is not related to me he, therefore, does not have cooties. If I even reached out a finger to rub your back the space time continuum might collide, the universe would implode and life everywhere would be sucked into an instantaneous black hole. We'd never even see it coming."

Everyone else in the room was laughing hard by that point, but Derek was shaking his head. "That's whack."

Lena was holding her stomach as she laughed. "He's so upset he's pulling out vintage slang, now!"

Mike walked into the room then with a very parental expression on his face. "Kids, keep it down."

They all looked sheepish enough. "Sorry, Mr. Mike," Derek spoke up first. "My fault. My big mouth again."

"We'll be more careful," Jewel promised, her expressive eye blue eyes showing how sorry they all felt.

"We're all going to be going to bed soon, anyway," promised Natalia.

"I left my phone down there, so I'm going down to the car for a few minutes to call and see how our account is doing. The last two gigs didn't pay too well so I think we might have to break out the cards Andriev gave us."

"Aw man," said Natalia. "Well we brought cash with us. Who has cash left?"

"I have a hundred," said Lena. "I was going to use it for gas for the van."

"I still have $200 left," said Derek, serious for once. "I thought we could put it on a prepaid with whatever we all have left and use it to pay our next hotel bill."

Once they tallied how much they all had, they were all carrying a little under $700 between them all. "That'll last us one week, tops, if we're really careful," said Mike. "We can use the gas card Andriev gave us if we need to and we can use the other card he gave us just for food and any checkout expenses from the hotels and motels. I'm going to go down and call now and see how much is in the account and then we'll talk about going to Target tomorrow to get that prepaid card. Hopefully you have as much left in the Eclectic account and we'll know we can make it for at least two of this last four and a half weeks."

The young adults all nodded, serious then, as Mike left the room to go down to the car.

"Well, Steve will be happy we're going to Target tomorrow," smiled Lena as she looked at the young man now fully asleep in his cot despite the previous noise.

They laughed low as smoke began to coalesce into the room. Derek jumped up. "Who the-!"

"It's Darius," Lena was able to tell, offhand.

The Carpathian male materialized in the middle of their hotel room. His cold eyes warmed as he looked around at all of the young people. "It is gratifying to see you all doing so well."

They all gave him a surprised 'hi', 'hello' or whatever kind of greeting fell out of their mouths.

"We didn't expect to see you," said Natalia. "Dayan came to our gig last week and then we never heard anything."

"We were deliberating," he gave off a nearly grim smile. "I do not have much time. It will take nearly one hour for me to return to my destination, so I must speak with you all quickly."

By then, all of the young people had all sat up and shuffled into positions of alertness to pay attention to his words. "Is everything okay?" asked Lena, worried. "Is everyone at home okay?"

He looked at Lena and found himself smiling sincerely as he announced, "Julian is annoying as ever."

Lena giggled as she looked over at a laughing Natalia whom declared, "Then everyone's fine!"

"You have attracted unwanted attention, through no fault of your own," Darius said. "The Morrison Group."

They all gave varying reactions of disbelief or disgust. "Oh, what do they want? And what do they _think_ they know?" asked Natalia.

"They of course suspect you all of being vampires," said Darius with a shrug. "Your lives are all in true danger. You cannot be allowed to travel on your own anymore."

All of the young people in the group were now quiet. The atmosphere in the room had gone from merry to somber.

Natalia asked quietly, "Well what are we supposed to do? We're booked up for the next week. We have a gig day after tomorrow on Sunday night. And we have a Friday night gig next week, a multicultural festival in the daytime next Saturday—I mean after those we're not booked for anything else, but for now we can't just bail on our obligations."

Darius sighed. He had known Natalia since her teenage years and she was using that to her advantage now.

"Besides," Lena said a little too casually. "We haven't been traveling alone since we started out on the road anyway, have we?"

Natalia looked at her and then looked back at Darius. "What?"

Lena also looked up at Darius as she folded her arms with a 'what do you say to that?' expression on her face. She wanted to know if he was going to spill the beans or if she was going to have to.

The ancient Carpathian shook his head. One of the hunters had been sloppy, indeed. Probably Simon since he was not used to Lena's abilities. "Yes, we made certain you were watched while you were out on the road. We did not wish any harm to come to you. Your families have either served us well or are currently serving us, protecting our secrets. How could we not serve them, in turn, when it matters most? Where their children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews are at stake?"

They all deflated at that answer and couldn't even get upset. "Ah well, when you put it that way," muttered James as his blue eyes cast downward.

Darius paused. "Desari has asked for the honor of you young people being her opening act for the next three weeks. She also wishes for you to close for them with one song. You will travel with us and-" he didn't get any further in his declaration.

They remembered the lateness of the hour, so they all jumped up and silent screamed in joy and high jumps at that opportunity. Derek was doing a ridiculous NFL-looking victory dance with his long limbs as Tanya and Jewel hugged one another tightly and jumped up and down. James fist pumped as Lena and Natalia gave one another hi-fives. Steve slept on!

Natalia said, "So we'll fulfill our gigs and then-"

"You shall travel with us from tomorrow onward," he declared with a raised finger. "Since we do not have a concert again until next Saturday evening, _we_ will travel with _you_ from this point onward. When you have fulfilled your obligations, you shall travel with us to specifically be the opening act for The Dark Troubadors." He turned and looked at the door. "Since your managing agent, Mike, is unaware of us, he will find very soon that he must mysteriously return home for the next three weeks. He shall still be able to manage your affairs from that far away, for the most part. He is returning at this time. I must depart."

Darius dissolved and streamed out of the room. Just as the last of his essence left, in walked Mike. "The account isn't doing too well. We should make it to the store tomorrow to get the last of that money onto a prepaid and pray for a miracle between now and when the last of that money runs out."

The kids all nodded solemnly. "Let's hope, right?" asked Jewel.

"Good night, y'all," said Lena. "I'm going to bed."

All of the girls decided to go to bed then and bid the guys good-night as they filed out to go to their own room.

##

The next evening, Mike came to them excitedly to tell them about the 'official' offer from The Dark Troubadors to become their opening act for the next few weeks. Within two hours of that, he informed them that he had an emergency back at home and would have to hop on a train to go see to it.

"Don't worry about us!" said James, his blue eyes very merry. "We'll be traveling with The Dark Troubadors. They'll take good care of us."

Mike ran to catch that train.

##

Sunday night, they went to their gig. They knew The Dark Troubadors would meet them at the upscale lounge they were performing at after their gig was done.

This place was not like the dives they had been performing at for the most part. This was guaranteed pay, and it was quite good. But as a result they had to do three things they didn't have to do at any of the other places. They had to dress the part. The band had to wear matching outfits. They also couldn't wear any crazy hairstyles and they had to play non-raucous music. And that's what they did.

Lena was waiting in the side wings, off-stage, watching them perform. She was wearing a pleated blue skirt and a button down white shirt. They had all joked that she looked like a private school girl.

Before they went on that night, each of the band members kissed Lena's cheek once. It was almost like a ritual they engaged in before every gig, all of them kissing their roadie/driver before running onstage. Sometimes she got mobbed and kissed by everyone at once as she screamed and smacked at the guys and sometimes it was a quick one by one deal. Even Steve, who didn't want to touch anyone, would be the very last to grab her hand and quick-kiss her arm. "For Luck, Lena!" he would always say and then run off onto stage and grab his guitar that she'd set up for him.

As she stood there, waiting in the wings, both Talon and Simon appeared on either side of her. Though emotionless, they were both very perplexed as to how she knew they were all being tailed by them.

"Lena," whispered Talon so that only she could hear, "how were you aware that the band was being tracked?"

She stood off to the side and smiled at Natalia doing her thing onstage. She just shrugged. It was easier for her to tell them without worrying about speaking too loud or someone overhearing if she communicated with them mentally, so she linked her arms into one each of theirs since they were on either side of her.

That quickly, information passed from them and into her since she allowed it in. Talon was dark and close to turning, but he still had time. But Simon was dangerously close. He couldn't take much more of his solitary existence. Being assigned to their little amateur band was the only thing holding him from turning vampire at that point.

Lena looked over at Simon, tears in her eyes. The tears were involuntary. "Simon," she whispered on a sniffle.

He shook his head. "Do not cry for me, little sister. I cannot appreciate your tears. I will do what I must when it is necessary."

She looked away from him and looked back out at all of her friends onstage as she answered the two Carpathians as to how she knew they had been following the band from the beginning. _Andriev says I have an inner shield or something. Since you guys check us a lot to make sure a vampire isn't trying to get into our heads, it was inevitable that somebody would trip my alarm!_

The hunters looked at one another over her head at how easily the petite girl had penetrated their minds to speak to them.

They could hear someone approaching their position and the two hunters disappeared before the manager of the establishment came up to her. "Are you Lena?" he asked politely.

She smiled up at him. "Yes, that's me."

"Someone who says he's your uncle Julian is here? He wants you to join him and his companions at the VIP table."

She grinned. She had felt the members of the band driving up five minutes before. "Where would that be?"

"Follow me," said the manager.

##

At one point, Natalia saw Lena being seated toward the back of the ritzy club in the VIP section with none other than Julian, Desari, Syndil and Barak. She beamed a smile and a wink at them as she continued singing.

At the end of the night, she said to the crowd, "You have all been a very positive audience for us, give yourselves a round of applause." The audience did so as Natalia then turned and inclined her hand behind herself. "How about a nice round of applause for the rest of the band?" The audience then gave applause for the band.

Natalia turned back to them and smiled charmingly at the small crowd. "As my closing act, tonight, I'm going to sing you a song I wrote myself. Derek and Steve did the music for it. So here it is, for the first time anywhere. It's called 'Follow My Voice'."

The nice laid-back sound of Steve on the acoustic guitar began and then Derek came in with soft keys on the keyboard. Tanya soon joined in with her own acoustic guitar, glad to finally get to play it again, as Jewel came in with the bass and then James began softly playing a set of bongos held on a stand next to his usual drum set.

Natalia began the words to the song that had come to her a week before, almost on the air. She didn't understand why, but she knew she had to sing the song that very night:

_"Wake…_

_ Come to me now…_

_ I can see the opening_

_ Of your eyes…_

_ It's time…_

_ Wake…_

_ Follow the sound_

_ Of my voice…_

_ Lift your arms_

_ To the sky…_

_Moonlight lifts you high…"_

Sitting in the VIP section, the Carpathians and Lena looked out at the audience. The effect Natalia was having on the crowd was something they had never seen.

"What is she doing?" whispered Barack.

"I don't know," said Lena, lost herself as to what was going on.

They continued to watch the audience, saw they were all entranced, eyes seemingly glazed over at her siren's song.

"Has she ever done this before?" asked Julian.

"No," Lena said as she sat there, still shocked.

"She has a talent like Desari, but not exactly," said Syndil. "I've never seen a crowd zone out like this before."

"This is very disconcerning," Julian shook his head as he watched Natalia continue singing. She seemed not to notice the effect her voice was having on the crowd, she was so deep into her song. "I knew she was a telekinetic, but what is this?"

Lena halfway frowned as she took a good look at Natalia. She didn't dare reach out to check her from across the room. "Something strange is happening here. This did _not_ happen when they practiced this yesterday."

Because Natalia also seemed zoned out by her own siren's song.

##

Some distance away deep underground in an abandoned field, eyes opened.

There was an intrusion happening. The male felt the presence of a mind _a voice_ in his head, pushing itself inward toward his soul. _Follow the sound of my voice!_ It was a song?

He at first assumed it might be an Undead attempting to find him. But he realized after less than five seconds that he was feeling more than anger at being disturbed. He felt a stark curiosity and a need to investigate. He pushed to the surface, burst out of the ground, arms raised to the sky in the light of the moon.

The voice was still singing in his mind. It was beautiful. It was a 'she'. He looked around himself.

When he had gone to rest in the field weeks before, it had been with the intentions of deciding what to do about his urge to turn. But now that he was up and out, something peculiar was happening to him.

For the first time in nearly eight hundred years he looked around and experienced the wonderment of color! There were wildflowers in the field where he had gone to rest, yellow, purple, blue! Colors he had missed sorely but after the first century no longer had he thought of them. Here they were now, accompanying the sound of that voice in his head.

He knew it was because of that _voice!_ He knew it was his lifemate, the one he had waited for for so long. He knew he had to track her town, take her with him to start their lives together.

Ragnar Thorsen followed the sound of that voice.


	6. Of All The Nerve

They joined with the Dark Troubadors that night. The young music group was emotionally overwhelmed by the opportunity that had come their way and as a result everyone was terribly exhausted almost to the point of tears by the time they made it to a campground around 4:30 a.m. Darius and Julian made certain to put up all of the proper barriers and safeguards as everyone else quickly made camp before the sun could rise.

Since Eclectic only had a tour van, the Troubadors gave them the use of their old bus that they had retired months before in favor of a new luxury model. But the old vehicle was still good. It contained heating and air, blackout shades for the windows and it came complete with bunk beds along the back and sides. Thanks to Rusti, it had remained in prime condition.

Derek, Steve and James fell out totally by 4:45 in the bunks that they had claimed. Jewel and Tanya had gone with Rusti and Desari. The Carpathian ladies wanted to show them where they could catch a quick shower.

All of the Carpathians were asleep in the Earth in their respective places by the time the sun came up. Julian, even in sleep, kept tabs on what Lena and Natalia were doing. Because as the sun rose, the two girls were watching it come above the horizon.

Natalia really wanted to be in bed. She was only there to keep Lena company. "Why do you watch the sun rise so many times a week?" asked the lead singer of her best friend. "I mean, you have to be exhausted by now. I know I am!"

Lena smiled sadly. "Because I know that someday I won't be able to anymore."

"You've already decided that you're-"

"Yes. I'm going to convert someday."

Natalia sat there and digested that bit of info. "Like immediately after you and he get together or-"

"I have no idea."

Natalia sighed sadly. Did that mean she was going to lose her friend at some point? "When did you decide this?"

"I know that I will never feel complete again until he and I are together. I never want to walk away from him like that again."

"If I meet my lifemate," joked Natalia, trying to lighten the mood, "I'll convert then just so we can stay friends _forever_!" The two of them started to laugh at the tone of voice Natalia had used when she said that.

Julian very intrusively at that point pushed into their minds and commanded: _Go to bed!_

The young women looked at one another and began to laugh even harder. But they stood and went into their bus and went to sleep for the morning and into the afternoon.

##

Their band formed somewhat of a steady routine once they joined with the Dark Troubadors. The members of Eclectic would awaken around 1:00 in the afternoon every day. After showering at the campground spot and getting dressed, grabbing something to eat from the stores of food Darius made sure to stock for them, they would harmonize together to get things right for their next performance. Then the instruments would come out and they would practice from around 3:00 to 6:00. Though still young and immature in many ways, the band took their practice sessions very seriously.

Lena would sit off to the side and write in her journal in between helping set up their instruments. Steve had taught her how to tune their guitars, so at least they had help there. The Dark Troubadors would be asleep in the Earth and from time to time the Carpathians could feel the positive vibrations of Natalia's voice if there was a particular song she truly loved. Her gift was not yet fully formed where her voice was concerned, but when it was, she would be a force to be reckoned with!

The band would finish their sessions each evening by practicing the song they planned on closing with that Sunday when they performed at the end of the Dark Troubador's concert. Strangely enough, it was not Natalia that would be the main singer for it, but James in conjunction with Natalia. For once, she would be his backup. It was strange because James almost never sang, but he had a nice voice and they were glad he was finally going to use it.

As they did the 'stop and start' of the very end of their practice, Lena and Rusti would stand off to the side and talk as the rest of the males of the Troubadors went to hunt. Desari and Sydil would take the big cats out for their hunt. The two groups surprisingly blended together seamlessly.

Natalia would remember later that she had thought 'things are going a little bit too well' as she settled down to go to sleep the night before their opening for the Troubadors. She wondered how long that trend would last.

##

It had taken Ragnar all week to discover her location. He relied on his wits and every bit of tracking education he had, but she was, after all, a moving target! The biggest help was that every once in a while, that voice would begin to sing. It always began when he was deep in the Earth. Just as the sun would go down, it would reach a fever pitch and within an hour of the sun being completely down, the voice would end. But he sensed, as each day passed, that he grew closer to where she was. His lifemate. Finally! A female for him!

Whoever she was, he sensed that she was heavily guarded by a lot of Carpathian males, but he also sensed that she was quite human. So who were these males around HIS female? And why was she traveling on the road, out in the open, allowed to put herself in such danger? This was unwise, in his opinion. He would put a stop to it immediately as soon as he caught up to her!

And then the day came when he finally caught up to her. Ragnar found himself at a huge amphitheater during a night concert. Her voice had been ringing through the stadium not an hour before, but now it was replaced by the voice of Desari of the Dark Troubadors. Where was his mystery woman?

He searched the crowd almost frantically first with his eyes and then with his senses. And then he came up against another Carpathian mind. Quickly, he masked himself. He realized he had been careless, so intent had he been on tracking down whoever this woman was that obviously belonged to him! He was able to mask his brain pattern, make it appear as if he were just another human standing in a crowd of humans.

Whoever the Carpathian male was that he had touched minds with by accient, he had obviously alerted the others, because now they were all searching for him! The lone Carpathian smirked. They wouldn't find him unless he wanted to be found. He was Ragnar Thorsen and one thing he was able to do was remain hidden!

Through it all, the concert jammed on.

##

Darius, Julian, Talon and Simon were being dragged into some kind of game of cat and mouse. There was someone here, some male Carpathian unknown to them. What he had come for, they did not know.

Had he come to test himself against the other telepathic human females traveling with them, to see if perhaps among them was a lifemate for him? Whoever this male was, he had not declared himself when he entered such close proximity of their lifemates and the humans under their protection. He obviously did not consider it important to respect Darius' position and inform them all of who he truly was. That made them surmise that perhaps he was either a male recently turned vampire or a male so close to turning he was losing his consideration and/or common sense.

Whatever was going on, he knew well enough at that point to mask his presence! But it did not matter. The four males knew that given time, they would find him. Perhaps, they realized, it would be better to allow him to come to them.

##

It was the last song of the concert and the Troubadors called Eclectic back out onto the stage to do their closing number.

As soon as they all ran out onstage, Ragnar was glued to the place where he stood. His mouth formed into an almost quizzical smile. Though there was more than one female onstage, he knew her when he saw her. There she was, the owner of that voice!

Eclectic was already feeding off of the energy of the crowd who obviously loved their prior performance. So they started in strong on their closing song, the cover of Level 42's 'Something About You (Human After All)'. James started into the song as Natalia, Derek and Tanya backed him up with harmonizing vocals. The crowd lost their minds at that point and the deafening roar of fans that had not even come to see them practically knocked the young group over.

Ragnar saw that his lifemate was a short, thick girl with eyes signature of those from the Dragonseeker line. His own particular talent roared to life. He realized she was human, but the part of her that wasn't was predominantly Dragonseeker. There was also a hint of Jaguar in her bloodline.

It was apparent to him, from her moves, the way she held the mic and vocally parlayed with her onstage partner that she was thoroughly an entertainer.

At one point in the song, she stood back to back with the other male that was singing along with her and then they turned and squared off, looking into one another's faces as they took turns singing lyrics. This so-called performance looked like more than just an act to Ragnar and he was instantly incensed, ready to rush the stage and grab her away from whoever this offending male was!

"'Because there's something about you,'" James sang, seemingly to Natalia, "'Baby! So riiiight!" He turned then and looked back at the crowd and pointed to some screaming girl and finished the lyric. "'I wouldn't be here without you, baby, toniiiiight!'" And the fan almost passed out, overcome with emotion.

Ragnar was so distracted by that strange act of this male singing to his lifemate and then turning to sing to some other woman, he did not notice that Natalia had zeroed in on him and was looking at him strangely. She remained thoroughly plugged into her performance, but deep within something told her that her life was about to change substantially. She didn't know why, but there was a plunk of dread mingled with anticipation settling into her stomach like a five pound weight.

##

Once the concert ended, the audience exited the stadium more than happy with the show they had been treated to that night. You could hear the excited voices as they all drifted to their cars. A glow of positivity infused into the fans was spilling out and over onto the world at large as they journeyed home. It was a gift to them from not only Desari's gifted voice, but also Natalia's. Every single person that had attended the concert that night would feel the effects of that positivity for days to come!

Ragnar, in the meantime, had no intentions of leaving the area without retrieving his lifemate, first. He took to the sky as soon as the crowd began to thin and allowed his body to rise on the eddying winds. He was above the clouds, then, waiting to engage the other Carpathian males once again in his continuing game of 'catch me if you can'.

The other males took advantage of the opportunity since they seemed to have temporarily chased off whoever this male was at some point. They quickly packed up their things and took their lifemates and the young humans in their charge and fled back to their campground. But Darius and Julian knew whoever he was, this was not over with him. He would continually try to assert his presence and most likely demand the right to see if one of the females was his.

Just as Darius was about to set up the safeguards for the campground, whoever this male was appeared from seemingly nowhere, dropping out of the sky faster than a stream of lightning.

He coalesced in a dramatic display from a flurry of pure energy and light, solidified into physical form right before their eyes. His magnificently formed naked body then had an almost turquoise colored silk shirt that matched his eerily ethereal eye color form over his upper half as black trousers formed over his lower half. His neatly arranged shoulder-length hair was nearly dark brown and as a result it truly made the color of his eyes glow.

Natalia felt a strange connection to this man. There was no doubt in her mind, he was definitely the same one from the audience she had noticed earlier in the evening. She immediately registered how tall and lean he happened to be. And that fast, as soon as he was done forming and clothing himself, he began to move quickly! He was gaining on her, practically standing right on top of her, his arms reaching out, trying to take hold of her.

She didn't know who this stranger was, but he was obviously a Carpathian. Despite how good looking he happened to be, she felt a bolt of outrage at his actions! He had some nerve coming up to her, with no introductions, obviously intent on grabbing her…

She used all of her telekinetic might, lifted one hand up and back behind her, then did a baseball throw gesture.

Ragnar realized this woman -his lifemate!- was lifting him in the air without touching him. She was then launching him across the campground. As he crashed unceremoniously into a lamppost, his body literally broke it in half upon contact. His dazed mind registered that his female was already a strong telekinetic. And all he could hear was every last one of the females in the vicinity laughing out loud at what had happened to him.

The nearly hysterical laughter of every woman in the place continued as his very exquisitely beautiful female was stalking over to him, standing just over his body as he tried to recollect himself. Two other Carpathian males were first flanking her and then standing in front of her, nearly blocking her from his view.

"Just who the hell do you think you are to come here and try to steal me?" Natalia demanded to know as her eyes flashed at him and she struggled to see past Talon and Darius.

Ragnar found himself dazed as emotions and color hit him even harder than the last time he had heard her voice. "I'm your lifemate. It's your duty to come with me now," were his first words to her.

Her mouth dropped open. "What the hell did he just say to me?" Natalia demanded as she backed away from him as if he were poison ivy. Darius and Talon were still standing over Ragnar as Julian went and began to pull Natalia behind him.

Everyone looked around at one another. The laughter was gone and you could hear nothing but insects chirping in the air as they all began to feel seriously uncomfortable with the situation. The males were all still staring at a now standing-up Ragnar. He was straightening himself up and looking at where Natalia stood. "You have heard my words to you, my lady. Do as I have bid and come to me, now!"

And then Natalia's nerves got the better of her because she started cursing him out in Spanish as she turned and walked away from his position, angry at the nerve on whoever this jerk was.


	7. Not Even to Cross the Street!

After Ragnar picked himself up from off of the ground, he was openly confused by his lifemate's reaction to him. He would understand if she were one of those human females that was not aware of the existence of Carpathians. But she obviously knew who they were! So she should be aware of her proper place by his side! He went to pursue, but Darius and Talon were there, in his path. The rest of the Carpathian males in camp then made certain to take up differing positions that were directly in his path.

"She does not wish to speak with you at this time," Darius informed him.

"And who are _you_ to her?" asked Ragnar, angry. "_I _am her lifemate!"

"If that is true, then you are more than welcomed to come and travel with us, court her properly. But she is under my protection while she is here and she will not be taken anyplace against her will."

Ragnar was still not satisfied with that answer. "I demand to speak with her!"

Darius looked at the other males and without a word, signaled that they should go and attend to their business. After the other males left, he went and stood with Ragnar and said, "Please understand, I watched Natalia grow to the age that she is now. When I met her, she was still a child. To me, she is still a child, though in fact she is not. You must take care to tread carefully here for many reasons. She is officially under the protection of one that you may know and he will not take kindly to your attempting to kidnap her against her will."

"And who is this she is 'officially' protected by?" asked the tall, lean, handsome stranger.

"Andriev Lupov is his name," said Darius. He pointed at Julian whom was across the campground giving Ragnar a serious case of the squint-eyes. "And that is his cousin, Julian Savage. He has most likely alerted Andriev to this situation. I repeat my advice to you at this time to tread lightly. Natalia is guarded and known well by many of our males. And for those who do not know her personally, she is known of by yet many more, including Gregori, my brother. Do not be overly arrogant about your position. You will be challenged at every turn until she is ready to accept you. In case you have forgotten, that is _her _right."

Ragnar remembered Andriev well. He always was a do-gooder that put his oar in where it was not needed! He would not be surprised if Andriev himself showed up within the next day to speak with him sharply. But Ragnar still felt he was in the right in this situation! "I demand to speak with her. She should at least do that! It is her place and it is _my_ right to have access to her!"

Darius shook his head. "You obviously have much to learn about what it means to be a lifemate. And if you consent to travel with us, you will learn well from the many males in camp who are already joined for life. I shall extend lesson number 1 to you at this time: If your lifemate is not happy, you will not be happy. Already, I detect her severely altered mood since you have arrived in such a rude manner. Your attitude toward her has already led to not only her unhappiness, but her fear."

Ragnar finally snapped out of his fuming and looked across camp. His female was standing out in the open hugging another one of the females, sobbing as if her life were over. And he could hear her saying, "_That's _my lifemate? What the hell? I get the jerk who acts just like my_ father_? What the _hell_?! Like, for real?" For the first time in centuries, he felt the sensation of a sinking heart.

Ragnar had no illusions about himself, both before he had lost his emotions and afterward. He knew he blundered plenty of things in his life with rash decisions. He now knew this would be added to that quite substantial list. In his mind, however, that he had so badly miscalculated her reception of him was nothing short of tragic. He did not even know of the way to change things. He also knew he didn't have any idea of the proper way to be toward her.

He only knew that she was his, but from her open fear, how was that going to be made true in every sense? She could obviously resist him, for a time, with her talents. He knew what he was dealing with now, when it came to her abilities. He could slice through that with sheer force and pressure, break her resistance in half. But looking at her across the lot, crying so piteously, there was another lurch in the area of his heart. He had to be honest with himself. He did not want her that way. He did not want to push her. He wanted her to want him back.

Natalia was fuming as tears traveled down her face. She had only been incensed before. But as minutes passed into hours, her anger gave way to despair. Who was this man? And what kind of man was he that he could demand rights to her the way that he had? She didn't even know his _name_, know if she would be safe with him! So why should she just up and leave with him, no explanations or words spoken ahead of time?

She had eventually holed herself up into the bus given to them by the Troubadors. All of the females in camp were sitting together in one pack trying to help her out.

Desari, Syndil and Rusti sat on one side of her. She had no doubt that if Dayan were still at the campground, his lifemate Corrine would have been there, too, but he had gone back to the permanent home they kept nearby after the situation had died down with this unknown male. On the other side of Natalia sat Jewel, Tanya and Lena. Everyone looked very uncomfortable.

"I sure wish MaryAnn were here," said Natalia as she wiped at the tears streaming down her face.

"Totally," Lena nodded. She grimaced as Andriev's thoughts then spilled into her mind. There was an urgency to his words.

_Ragnar has arrived for Natalia?_

_ Wait, you know his name? You knew he was coming?_

There was a long pause by Andriev. _Yes, I knew of him as her lifemate from many years before just as I knew of yours._

_Well did I mention Ragnar's a total asshole?_

_ Lena!_

_ I'm sorry! It's hard to edit my brain! I'm up here trying to comfort Natalia right now. That ass—um, jerk just waltzed up in here and basically tried to kidnap her! She's scared and bawling her eyes out now._

He was obviously upset that Natalia was upset, but he was also confused by something Lena said._ What do you mean Ragnar 'tried' to kidnap her? Did Julian and Darius or perhaps one of the other males stop him?_

Lena thought back _Oh, no! There was no damsel act up in here! Natalia telekinetic'd out on him, or whatever you call it, and launched him across the campground. He hit a lamppost and broke the thing in half! AHAHAHAAAA!_ Lena went one better and said, _Hold up! One hilarious memory, coming your way! _ She then thought about the exact moment and the way it played out down to the sound the Viking had made when he contacted the lamppost and it broke in half. She sent it to Andriev mentally on an instant replay loop.

Andriev found himself having to restrain laughter at being able to see exactly what had happened. The fiery girl was going to give that Carpathian a run for his suppositions. _Give her a message from me. 'Good girl. Make him respect you.' And you tell him, from me, 'You had better respect Natalia or else I shall come and give you lessons on the meaning of respect.'_

Lena looked at everyone and she knew they were all wondering who she had been talking with. "That was Andriev. And he thinks it's hilarious that you launched that jerk into a lampost, whose name by the way is 'Ragnar'. He said 'good girl, make him respect you'."

"Ragnar?" asked Natalia. "Oh, great! I've got some kind of _Viking_?"

Everyone sat there for a split second, saying nothing.

Finally, "That's kinda hot," Tanya nodded matter-of-factly as she threw her braids over her shoulder.

There was another spell of palpable silence at first and then they all burst into peals of nervous laughter. The tension, at least for then, had been broken.

An hour later, all of the women came spilling out of the bus.

The three human young men had been sitting outside waiting to get in and get something to eat, but they knew better than to complain. Across the campground, that new Carpathian had been standing there looking at the door of the bus, waiting for Natalia to come out. Darius was standing with him, basically a sentry for his every move. It was an uncomfortable situation to say the least.

"Come on, Steve," James pulled him into the bus. "Let's go and eat."

He followed the other guys in eagerly after Lena and Natalia both smiled at him.

The ladies all broke up into different directions. The Carpathian women went to each of their lifemates, except for Rusti. She knew Darius would not like her to be anywhere near Ragnar after he had done something so rash, so she stayed with Lena and Natalia, standing off to the side trying to figure out what to do next. Jewel and Tanya had gone to the van to secure their instruments for the night.

Natalia couldn't make heads or tail of the situation and she found herself buried in a deep hole of confusion. "Did this happen with Darius when you two first found one another?" asked Natalia of Rusti. "Did he just show up and snatch you… I mean, I know you answered the advertisement and came to them to fix their stuff. But did he see you and try and plant a flag in you like you were some undiscovered continent?"

Rusti had to hold back her laughter at the way the younger woman had phrased the second half of her question. She woman shook her head as she thought back to those first days after meeting Darius. "He was persistent, but he was never demanding. And he was always so-" she didn't want to say the words, that Darius had always been tender with her. She didn't want to make Natalia feel worse about her situation. She looked across the campground at the other male who was standing there basically staring Natalia down. "No, I've never quite seen anything like this before," Tempest finally got out.

Natalia looked over at Lena. "I know you don't like to talk about him, but what about Armand? You never really told me exactly what happened."

She shook her head, still not really wanting to talk about him. "That was a different situation than this. I was underage and Armand knew that. I don't know if that's the reason he was able to voluntarily give me up." But she also didn't want to make Natalia feel badly, because she remembered well the way her lifemate had been during that brief time they had spoken to together. She knew Armand would NEVER have approached her that way. From the moment he had met her he had been all tenderness and awe. Perhaps this Ragnar was so close to turning, he was having trouble with the new emotions Natalia induced in him? But Lena kept all of that to herself.

Natalia was crestfallen. "Well I'm obviously going to have to talk to that asshole at some point."

The other two ladies standing with her cringed and looked at one another. Pretty much all of the females in their minds were already, by default, calling Ragnar 'jerk' or something much worse!

"That doesn't mean I'm going to go with him, either!" Natalia added, quite stubbornly with one belligerent nod of her head.

Lena said, "Natalia, you stay there. I'll be right back."

Rusti walked off to the side with her and for a split second, Lena took on several attributes of her aunt, Danica. "Aunt Rusti, we're going to have to be go-betweens in this."

Rusti began to laugh. "What is this, high school?"

"Worse. Its college," quipped Lena.

She sighed. "Okay. I think you might be right in this situation. Because neither one of them are budging." Rusti shook her head as she looked between Ragnar and Natalia. "And not for nothing, but he _is_ a total asshole," she whispered. "Don't tell Darius I said that."

But Darius interfered with the thought to his lifemate _I quite agree with your assessment on his attitude about this situation…_

"Well we know that he is that word Andriev told me not to say anymore, but we have to bring them together somehow." Lena shook her head. "We know what will happen if this doesn't start to work out soon and the last thing this planet needs is one more vampire running around, right?"

Rusti sighed heavily. "I agree."

"I mean, he _is_ her lifemate."

"Yeah, he just needs to learn how to act with her!" Rusti whispered.

"Well we can work on her and Darius can work on him, right?" said Lena.

"How the heck are we going to work on her," asked Rusti, "after the stunt he pulled tonight?"

The young girl looked clueless and crestfallen at first. And then she got a look on her face like she had some kind of idea. "I got it! Follow my lead," said Lena. They both walked back to Natalia. "Okay, admit it, he's totally hot," Lena nodded with a straight face.

Natalia looked at both ladies, suspect. "You do not think he's hot."

Lena rolled her eyes and admitted, "Not for me, no. But he's _your_ lifemate." She looked at Ragnar and grinned widely. "Come on, girl! That man is looking like an empanada to you right now, isn't he?"

And then Natalia was laughing. "Did you just compare him to a beef patty?"

"Well look at him!" Lena pointed in his direction insistently. "Come on, girl, you know you want to at least talk to him and figure out what's going on in that brain!"

"Or if he even has a brain," Natalia said with an attitude.

Rusti added, "We don't even know his last name! Come on. Just go talk to him for a few minutes. That's all you have to do is talk, okay?"

Natalia sighed. "All right, fine, I'll talk to him."

"We'll be right back," said Rusti. "I'll get Darius to give you two some space and lay down a few rules for Ragnar the Conqueror over there."

Both ladies crossed the parking lot together and left Natalia standing where she was at. They walked up to Darius and the other unknown Carpathian male. Darius gave them questioning glances.

"This is the deal, Tough Guy," Rusti said to Ragnar directly with a point of a finger. "We've gotten her to agree to just talk to you. Do you understand what that means?"

Ragnar looked shocked that this female was speaking to him. "My lifemate asked you a question!" snapped Darius, finally losing some of his limitless patience.

"Yes, I suppose so," said Ragnar as his eyes returned to Natalia across the campground.

"I have a message for you from my Uncle Andriev," Lena added. "'Respect her or else'." She then said, "Hey man, we went to bat for you because we kind of feel bad for you since you obviously have no idea what you're doing."

Talon had then materialized standing next to Natalia. "Who is he?" asked Ragnar, becoming enraged at his proximity to his lifemate.

"That's the Carpathian male that's watched over her since she was a teenager," said Darius. "You would do well to suffer his presence until she is comfortable with at least speaking with you one on one."

Ragnar had not counted on any of this happening when he went to finally claim his lifemate! But this was the situation he was dealt. He supposed that perhaps he should be grateful he had found her after all. So he swallowed his pride and crossed the small distance between them as she stood still too close to her guardian for his comfort.

He walked up to the two of them. "I am Talon," the male introduced himself. You could see there was no inflection of tone or emotion there. "This is Natalia Rosa Rivera."

Natalia looked up at him and it finally sank in how tall and good looking he actually was. Her knees were starting to tremble now that she was close enough to him. She knew it was one part fear to one part attraction.

She suddenly understood what it really meant to be a lifemate. She was drawn to him, wanted to instantly forgive his impulsive actions from before. Because he had stuck around afterward and was trying to be more careful, she knew he had obviously done what he had earlier out of ignorance, not malice. But on principle she forced her face to stay straight as she gave him a hard stare with her arms folded in front of her. "And your name is?" she asked as if he were the rudest man on Earth. Her eyebrows lifted in an almost prompting way. "Well?"

"Ragnar. Depending on where I am, I was known as Ragnar Thorsen." He knew that if he tried to access her mentally, she would really try to run away from him again, so he kept his mind to himself for the time being.

She translated the meaning of his second name in her head since she had done well in her History classes. _Son of Thor? Oh brother! Give me a break!_ "Why did you approach me like that earlier?" she wanted that issue out in the open and dealt with immediately.

He swallowed back regret. "I was under the notion that once I found my lifemate, if she were Carpathian, she would instantly follow me. And if she were human, I would go slowly in my approach. However, I saw that you were a human traveling with Carpathians and I mistakenly assumed you understood what it would mean when I arrived."

"So you were just planning on swooping in and, basically, kidnapping me?"

He was so outraged, he couldn't speak for a couple of seconds. "But you're my _lifemate_!" finally tumbled from his beautiful lips.

"That doesn't mean we _own_ each other…" But a part of her rebelled. Yes, he owned her. And she also owned him. Something told her they did and should own one another. Against her will she found herself staring him up and down. It looked like she was surveying him with attitude, but she was memorizing every line and plane of his body…

"I protest that assessment," he said, offence in his eyes. "We do belong- _own _one another!"

She swallowed back what she was about to say. In her mind and heart something was involuntarily changing toward him. His voice was beautiful to her. His face, his eyes, she wanted to bask in them. It made her nervous. It wasn't right, this subverting of her will by some natural force she had been randomly chosen to conform to! "And _I_ protest that you thought you could just snatch a person without their permission! That's not right! It scared me and it caused me to do something I've never done in my life, and that's using my talents to hurt someone." Her arms were still folded as she pursed her lips. "I want an apology for you treating me like an object and not a person and causing me to react that way."

He found himself hurt that she was hurt by his actions. "I did not realize this would offend you," he said honestly. "And I do apologize for that lack of forethought on my part."

She nodded. "All right." She unfolded her arms and extended one hand to him to give him a handshake. "I'm Natalia, nice to meet you."

He took her hand in his, glad that she had offered it to him. His large hand enveloped her small one. Their flesh connected. Nerve endings met, person to person and a chain reaction began that was unstoppable. Their hearts began to beat in tandem with one another and then their hearts leapt simultaneously at the change. Ragnar was infused with joy as Natalia felt fear, joy and then more fear. He was then pulling her to him slowly. "I wish only to greet you properly," he said by way of a promise. His face dropped to hers little by little. "May I kiss you?" he half whispered.

She found herself unable to speak as she found herself nodding 'yes' without thinking. Another part of her was protesting loudly, but she ignored it.

He, thankfully, gave her one chaste peck on the cheek, but his face lingered next to hers, inhaled her as his eyes closed. "Despite my behavior from before," said his deep voice in her ear, "I wish for you to know that I am very grateful to have finally found you after all of this time." He pulled back a little to gaze into her beautiful eyes. "My Natalia."

Her stomach dropped out from under her and she was immediately smitten. It took all of her might to hide the real feelings running back and forth in her chest and stomach. She was definitely in trouble, she knew. But she was going to make him work and prove who he truly was to her. Because at this point, it didn't matter how attractive he was, she wasn't even inclined to cross the street with him.


	8. Week One With Ragnar

_A/N - Sorry it took so long to update! It's been a crazy, hectic summer! This is a very LONG chapter with lots of info and stuff happening! I think I tried to make up for the fact that it took so long to update and that it might take another week before I update again._

* * *

The situation seemed stable enough. Dayan had long before gone home to Corrine and their daughter. Darius and Rusti's young daughter was also with Corrine while the band was on the road for those few weeks. The band had created an isolated home fortified with numerous spells, safeguards, specially made protection glass -even the Earth itself underneath and around the house had been warded against vampires- it was made specifically to protect Carpathian children in that part of the world. Manolito and MaryAnn were also there since Dayan didn't feel right about leaving Corrine on her own for longer than a few hours at a time.

Back at the campground that Dayan had long left behind, by 2 a.m. that evening Natalia was absolutely exhausted. Ragnar, of course, was also still there with them. The entire tract of land had been properly safeguarded and most of the males had gone to hunt for the night.

The human young people were all sitting in their bus together to set a few things straight. Ragnar was not too far from Natalia's position. He had intentionally attuned himself to listen in on whatever conversations she took part in. He did not like the fact that she was in the tour bus with other males but he forced himself to sit there and simply listen and learn who she was. The last thing he wanted to do was make another major mistake.

"Guys, does this mean the band is breaking up?" asked Steve sadly as he avoided looking at anyone.

"Oh, no, baby!" Natalia said as she sat next to him. "I'm not going anywhere!"

"But lifemates go where lifemates go," Steve said as he shook his head sadly. He was very distressed that their plans might be changing. In his mind, they were supposed to absolutely be on the road until right before college started up again and after that they were supposed to be back in the studio while doing one gig a month.

"Well my lifemate is going where_ I_ go," Natalia assured him.

Derek spoke up then. "You know I joke all the time, Natalia, but I'm serious when I say this. We know the deal and we know what comes next. Just say the word and we'll all go home until you can figure this out. We support whatever decision you make. This stuff is bigger than us and we understand the repercussions -all of them- if things don't go well."

Natalia looked around at her bandmates. Some of them were teary-eyed and half of them were avoiding eye-contact with her. She could see that they were all nervous about the future of the band. "Guys, my goals are still the same. I'm a performer." She could see they were having a hard time believing that things weren't about to instantly change overnight. "When Julian came along," she asked, trying to prove her point, "did Desari stop performing?"

"I guess not," said Tanya with a half shrug. "She's still out there doing her thing."

"And doing it well!" Jewel laughed nervously.

"So why can't I be like that, too?" asked Natalia. She looked over at Lena. "Right?"

Lena nodded reassuringly. "That's right, girl. You do your thing. It'll all fall into place the way it's supposed to."

"Well at this point, I'm about to fall into bed," joked Derek, "because I'm exhausted."

"Yeah, me too," James agreed.

They had all had that band meeting in their pajamas. All of the girls went to the back of the bus where they drew a curtain. The guys went to their bunks up front. Everyone settled in to their places to sleep and the lights went out. But not one of them could close their eyes.

There seemed to be some kind of ball of tension in the bus sitting on the silence in the air. Nearly twenty minutes passed. And then, "Guys," Natalia whispered into the darkness as tears formed in her eyes. "Guys, I didn't say this before, but I have to admit it now. I'm scared. I'm like really scared." They could hear a quivering in her voice. "I don't know what's going to happen next," she sobbed. "And that's the truth."

They all felt afraid on her behalf. This was unknown territory.

So the band did what they knew how to do. "Let's sing a song," said James. "I mean we should practice Vivir Lo Nuestro, right? I kind of still suck at singing the beginning."

It was one of the only songs in Spanish the group knew, but they'd learned it because Natalia felt that if they were going to call themselves 'Eclectic', their musical range should cover many time periods, languages and cultures.

One thing was certain, James did not 'suck' at the beginning. But she knew it was his attempt at making her feel better to take a song from her culture for them to sing at that moment. James began the first verse and sang it well! Natalia then did the first answering verse, her voice shaky with her tears and then it became stronger as her vocals progressed.

Pretty soon, all the guys were singing the man's part of the song and all of the girls, including Lena, were giving the verses delivered by the woman. It was a bus sitting in the darkness full of harmonizing voices.

Somewhere far away, Desari and Syndil looked at one another and smiled. They had been worried about Natalia since Ragnar had come off so entitled from the start, but now they knew that so long as she had the band with her, she might eventually transition well into becoming a lifemate whether she converted or not. Support for her at this crucial stage was of primary importance, they knew, in order for her to maintain sanity enough to allow Ragnar to get close to her.

The band felt light-hearted with comfort by the end of the salsa ballad and they were good and drowsy with smiles on their faces. They were all falling asleep when Natalia said into the air, "I love you, guys."

"We love you, too, Natalia," said Tanya.

##

Ragnar stood there as he realized that Natalia's band was tied up with her identity. It was only the first night since he had met her and he was beginning to suspect that courting her was going to be more complicated than he originally thought. Frustration at the forefront of his mind, he wondered, how was he going to extricate her from this group? He cursed his bad decision from earlier since it seemed his approach caused her to push herself into the center of them even more!

He knew that maybe he should sit back and simply be glad to be in her company, stay out of her way for a time and let her grow comfortable at the thought of him being around. He just didn't want to!

He wound up deciding it was better for her to want to leave with him than to pressure her in some way. He would have to do the last thing he wanted in this situation. He would have to wait some more.

##

They continued on their tour into the following week. Ragnar pretty much kept his distance the first three days with them on the road.

Natalia felt a tiny bit of relief once she realized that he wasn't going to be pushy about things.

After that initial three days, little by little, he made his way to Natalia's side. Each day, he would manage to bring himself closer and closer to wherever she stood or walked each evening. After a time, he became somewhat of a silent shadow. He didn't come too close or do much of anything else. He was simply persistent with his presence. It took all of his strength to be so passive, but he did it.

The night before the big concert for that week, he found Natalia outside sitting in a lawn chair. She was working on the wording of new lyrics with Lena. The other members of the band weren't too far away, roasting marshmallows over a tiny camp fire. Lena saw Ragnar approaching and gave him a tiny smile as she discreetly stood and left her spot empty for him. He was grateful that her friends were at least open to him being around now, even if he could detect that they initially thought he was 'the biggest jerk on the planet'. He seemed to have scored some points with them due to his newfound patience.

Ragnar walked up close and stood near where Natalia sat, towering over her. "May I sit down with you?" he asked almost carefully.

She tried to ignore the fear that the sight of him brought up in her. She found herself looking him up and down once and then rolling her eyes. "Yes, go ahead," she said anyway.

He sat in the other lawn chair that had been vacated by Lena. The chair was quite low to the ground and he had to allow his long limbs to casually unfurl outward. He then rested in that oh-so-casual position and then began staring at her.

Natalia found herself annoyed with her betraying thoughts. The way he sat in the lawn chair, all lounged like some kind of large jungle cat, it was a little too hot and distracting. His beautiful eyes caught the light of the fire not far away and his gorgeous face was looking over at her… more like he was _staring_ at her, her hair, every single move she made. She couldn't believe it, he was actually _staring_.

She had half a mind to tell him to get away from her, but she knew that wouldn't be fair. He had been trying, she noticed, to make his presence not as known as he could have. She had to concede that Lena was right, she was attracted to him and he was good looking to her. Then she had to break it down in her mind even further and finally admit to herself that he was THE BEST looking man she had ever seen in her life and that there was 'something' about him that was inescapably magnetizing to her. Yes, she felt betrayed by her insides and decided to take it out on him.

"What are you staring at?" she suddenly snapped at him.

"You," he said simply. "Your lovely face." He wanted to add more but had a feeling his thoughts on her body would not be welcomed just yet. He slammed his lips shut but continued to stare. Her body was healthy and waiting just for him…

She looked skyward, annoyed at the staring sentinel sitting at her side. Another part of her was worse than flattered that a guy that looked like _that_—she shut the thought down immediately. "Are you going to sit there and stare at me all night or are you going to make conversation?"

He gave her a slow, hot smile as he openly looked her up and down. His gaze returned to her face. "If you are willing to speak with me then I am willing to speak."

She swallowed back a retort. She sighed. "Well, um…" She shook her head. What do you ask a man that's supposed to be your mate…for life? Once again, her stomach lurched with not only nervous nausea, but also with a strange sense of anticipation that made no sense to her. It was like a prearranged marriage, but not exactly. Some other part of her wanted to connect with him, but she was still fighting it. "Where are you from? I mean… I know you're a Carpathian, but I mean… Ragnar Thorsen? You stayed with the Vikings?"

He was more than ready to tell her anything she wanted to know. "My parents took me away to the many Viking lands when I was barely eight. They were sent that way to keep an eye on those regions. We were the only ones of our kind that we encountered for such a long time afterward…" A shadow passed over his face.

"Thorsen," said Natalia. "Son of Thor? Is there a reason for that name in particular?"

He smiled over at her warmly. "So you are aware of the meaning of the name. Yes, my father named himself 'Thor'… Tor in some places. That was his first name. He had another he used, too, but very rarely. Our family became the Thorsens. We moved around very much, never spent more than twenty years anywhere. Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Greenland… Wherever we went, he and my mother were able to make themselves appear to age. On our journeys from one land to another, by the time we would arrive at the new land, they would have 'died on the journey' and my father would take a new identity, my mother would have a different name."

He nearly laughed, "She had more names than any of us. I lost track after awhile. It is easy to simply call her 'mother' after all, is it not? My father was the unfortunate one that had to keep up with her name changes, after all,_ ja_?"

Natalia found herself actually smiling with him since a piece of the accent he had probably used for years bled through in that quick second. It seemed that he was showing his true self in that moment, not the front of who he wanted the world to see.

He seemed to get more into telling her of his past then since he felt she was truly listening to him. "They would say they had a young son visiting with other relatives. I would arrive ten years later from those 'other relatives', obviously a grown man at that point. It was tricky, but we were able to make it work for a time."

She found herself fascinated, lost in his narrative. "Did they call him 'Thor' because he did things, you know, out of the ordinary?" she asked carefully.

He nodded slightly as his smile began to depart. "He did. I did not agree with my father doing that, either. It was the one thing he and I strongly disagreed upon once I grew old enough to understand the world around me and the consequences of such a thing." He sighed. "My mother and he had another child during one of those stints when I was away for ten years. When I reached them, I encountered my younger brother for the first time. He was a mere seven years of age."

Her eyebrows rose and she was genuinely curious as she asked, "You have a little brother? Where is he now?"

Ragnar shook his head. "I do not know. I lost track of him over two centuries ago. The last time I saw him, he had just lost his emotions. I wanted to help him because by then I was used to the—the bleak blankness of what my existence had become. I felt that I could guide him to finding resolution and peace until he could find his lifemate. But he did not want my help. He simply wanted to be left alone. I lost track of him after that. I have been searching for him ever since. I had already been on the search for you from long before then."

That comment jarred her back to the reality of her situation. "How long is that?" she asked, growing nervous.

He looked at her hungrily. "I have been searching for you since before I fully lost all of my emotions. I had none for 800 years, I had them fully for 200, and in between that time, it took a century for them to bleed out, little by little… For nine hundred of those years I have looked for you," he said with deep intensity. He looked away from her then into the darkness. "And for five hundred I have been searching for my younger brother, Harek. Searching for others keeps one busy when the darkness calls," he said as he finally looked over at the fire that the band was sitting around not too far away. Dark shadows caressed his face and for once Natalia felt sympathy for him. Something along the lines of 'caring' began waking up within her where he was concerned.

She realized how old he was, then. Just over a thousand years. She knew the older Carpathian males became, the more ridiculous they could be with their arrogance. Why couldn't she have wound up with a younger one?

She remembered how he had tried to simply come and snatch her and a gate slammed back around her heart once again. It was going to take more than a sob story for her to trust this man! She tried to move the conversation onto neutral territory where she wouldn't be feeling sorry for him. "So where are your parents now?"

"Lost at the height of midday." He shook his head once again. He didn't realize being able to recall the past with his emotions intact would hurt so much. "Someone they trusted betrayed them."

Her plan was torn to shreds because her heart was very stricken for him at the thought of what happened with his parents. "Someone killed them?" she half whispered with horror.

He nodded as he continued to look away. He felt the emotions then, fresh, raw. When it had originally happened, he had been too emotionless to feel the loss fully. But remembering now… The memory of finding their defaced bodies, his mother's head had been cut off and stakes had been driven through their chests. It looked like whoever it was had been scared away prematurely because his father's body was only mostly, not totally, burned.

Pain shook him and he found himself pointedly looking away so that tears did not grab him. He still did not know who the betrayer was. But he would find them, too. He had already done the next to impossible and found his lifemate! He would find his brother, Harek and together they would perhaps find clues to who had betrayed their parents. Maybe that or perhaps they could find Harek's lifemate.

She saw that he had been rendered speechless, realized that he was able to truly and fully feel those memories for the first time. Natalia found herself truly heartbroken for him at that point and couldn't stop herself from instinctively reaching out and touching his arm gently. He turned then, his eyes practically ablaze. They had turned red with emotion, heat and flame as he grabbed her hand and held it in his as of it were a life raft. He leaned forward into her space, looked deep into her eyes. Was she ready to accept him yet?

Natalia was flipped out by how fast this had happened. She snatched her hand away from his and stood quickly, very afraid. "I have to go now," she said in a half panic but trying to disguise it.

Ragnar found himself speechless as she walked away from him as fast as possible. He didn't know what to say, but he knew it would be a bad idea to follow her. After she left, he sat there, frustrated with her and with himself. Why did he keep messing up? Why was his lifemate still afraid of him? Why didn't she want him the way that he was in need for her?

The leader of their group strode over silently. "This seat is not taken, I trust?" asked Darius.

Ragnar shook his head mournfully. "She will not return this evening. I can tell."

Darius sat down in the vacated chair. "How goes your courting of our Natalia?"

Ragnar bristled. The only one Natalia belonged to rightfully was HIM. She was HIS! Not everyone elses! But he knew that was not what Darius had meant and he forced himself to make the beast in him back down on the issue. "It has been slow… difficult," he admitted. "But tonight we truly spoke. At least there is that."

Darius saw the man was not going to say another word. "I am familiar with what it is like to come across your lifemate and meet initial resistance."

"Oh?" asked Ragnar, surprised.

"I was as gentle as possible with my lifemate and yet she was still afraid." Darius kept the reasons why Tempest had been afraid to himself. The reasons were immaterial to this conversation. Fear was fear, and Natalia was horribly afraid of being Ragnar's active lifemate. "If I may offer a suggestion?"

Ragnar was totally disgusted then. To need advice from another male about HIS woman? "Fine. Speak," he said as if he were only tolerating hearing the words.

"Your level of intensity may perhaps not suit her personality. She may perhaps be in need of some levity first. Show her you are capable of laughter. And gifts are never a bad thing."

Ragnar's eyebrows drew inward. "Gifts?"

"Gifts. Think it through and then act. But I must say, Ragnar, you are doing well with giving her time to think and adjust. And for that, I am grateful."

The frustrated Carpathian found himself glad that at least someone saw that he was trying the best that he could under the circumstances. "I thank you for that acknowledgement. If only my Natalia could realize the same."

###

The next morning, Natalia, Lena and Tanya rolled out of bed before everyone else. It was time for them to go shopping for some food. Natalia was itching to get out into some semblance of regular life since there was this ticking time bomb feeling in the back of her mind. It had begun once Ragnar had shown up in her life the week before. She knew once time was up, she would have to join him. He couldn't help his feelings for her. She knew it was inevitable what would happen since already her feelings for him were starting to grow. It was what it was and she was finally coming to grips with that. It was just the life altering things that went along with that attraction that was baking her brain every second of every day!

At least, she comforted herself with the thought, she could still go out into the light of day and think things through! Both Lena and Tanya were also going a bit stir crazy at the campground.

As for the guys, they just wanted to sleep in. Jewel pretty much stayed attached to her twin brother's hip -and vice versa- so she slept in that day, as well.

The three girls rolled out of the bus, dressed and ready to shop for food and whatever else they needed at the nearest indoor food market.

"It's hilarious that freaking 11 a.m. is considered 'sleeping in'!" laughed Tanya as they sped off in Darius' sports car.

"I can't believe we jacked Darius' car," Lena said, paranoid, as she drove the expensive vehicle.

"We did not 'jack' it! We borrowed it!" Natalia said. "Rusti said we could. She said it would do his ego well to share once in a while."

Tanya's mouth dropped open. "For real? Like for real she said that?"

"She did! She's always jabbing at him!" laughed Natalia. "Besides, how do you think Lena got the keys?"

"Girlfriends," declared Lena, "Rusti may have handed them keys over to me, but it still feels weird driving Darius' vehicle without his express permission. Wish I had his permission signature on this puppy in triplicate!"

"So what made you get in the car?" laughed Natalia.

"I thought I'd be cool with this, but I most certainly am NOT," said Lena as the other two girls laughed. "I have never driven anything this expensive in my life!" she exclaimed as she kept looking in the rearview mirror as if she expected to see Darius himself flying after them to get his car back.

"You know Rusti's got that man wrapped around her little finger!" laughed Tanya. "As does another lady in this car, you know, have a man wrapped around her little finger, but we shall not say it at this time."

Natalia almost blushed. "Stop it! I do not have Ragnar wrapped around my-"

"Oh yes you do!" Lena finally relaxed as she laughed while driving.

The three girls gabbed on as they made it into town to a supermarket.

###

They went shopping for themselves and the boys using the card given to them by Andriev for that purpose. "He said he wanted us to eat while we were on the road," said Lena, not at all feeling guilty like she thought she would for spending that money as they stood at the checkout.

They were able to find everything they needed. Lena had one cart and Natalia had another as Tanya helped pack up all of the stuff they had into the carts. "Are you sure we don't have too much food?" Tanya asked.

"Have you seen those boys _eat_?" asked Natalia.

They had purchased five boxes of cereal, four gallons of milk, a bunch of bottled water, a whole lot of lunch meat and bread and assorted fruits and vegetables. They had also purchased a huge amount of microwave meals for their dinner to last them for the next couple of days. They were really grateful for the large fridge and microwave Darius had gotten just for them. The band really tried their best to eat their food before the sun went down since they didn't want to subject the Carpathians to the smell of cooked meat.

The three girls were loading up the car and Tanya said, "I have to run back inside. I forgot about our Friend," she laughed.

"Oh, you can't forget Maxi Pad!" Natalia said the two words if they were a proper name as she laughed.

Tanya ran back into the store to go and purchase enough products for herself and the other three girls on the road with them.

The two girls finished loading up the car while Tanya was inside the store. They had so many items, they all couldn't fit inside the small trunk, so they loaded up half of the back seat with the rest of the groceries. Some of the items wound up on the seat itself and others on the floor.

Once they were done packing, they waited for Tanya. Lena sat down in the front passenger seat, door open, her legs out and feet rested on the pavement as she opened up a Snicker's bar and started eating it. Natalia sat down half in, half out of the driver's side and opened a bag of Doritos and started noshing. They were both very careful not to get their snacks in Darius' car. They doubted Rusti could save them from that tongue lashing if they did! The two were laughing and talking together as they waited.

At some point two men dressed in suits walked up to them. They looked a little bit confused and unsure of themselves. They were standing at the front of the car since there was no other car parked in front of them.

Natalia looked over at Lena wondering what was going on as one of the guys looked at them eating and seemed even more confused. He was staring at the girls biting and chewing on their snacks. "Hey guys," said Natalia, trying to be friendly. She was used to meeting fans all of the time, but she had a feeling these two weren't exactly fans. Wanting to give them the benefit of the doubt, she stood up out of the car and asked, "What's up?"

The two men looked at one another. "Are you with Eclectic? Are you Natalia?" asked the shorter man with brown hair.

Natalia gave off a huge smile. "That would be me! How can I help you fellas? You want us to perform at a gig or something? I can give you our managing agent's number and he'll set everything up."

Lena sat there chewing on her Snicker's bar, but her eyes were squinted with suspicion.

The other taller man who hadn't said anything up until then looked at Lena. "I've never seen you on stage."

"That's right you haven't," Lena tried to say casually. "I'm a roadie and all-purpose jack of all trades for the band. I try my best to stay _out_ of the public eye."

"And you two are?" asked Natalia thinking of what Darius had warned them about that night in their hotel room about the Morrison Group. These two had the smell of Morrison all over them.

The men looked at one another. "I'm Oscar," said the shorter man. "And this is Dell. We're from a group that's interested in the goings-on with the Dark Troubadors."

Natalia looked confused. "Goings-on? What's that supposed to mean?"

"You are traveling with them, aren't you?" asked Oscar.

"Yeah, we're their opening act," Natalia nodded happily as if she were ignorant to everything going on around her. "Dream come true, that was."

"Why would they pick your band out of all of the other bands they could have picked?"

She found herself scoffing. "Cause we're awesome like that!" Natalia bragged and then pursed her lips and folded her arms. "Did you want to book a gig or not? This is confusing."

The two men looked at Lena eating the last of her candy bar and then at Natalia as she balled up her now empty bag of chips. Tanya showed up then. "Got it, guys!" she said as she approached them.

"You are Tanya," said the tall man named Dell.

"Hello!" she greeted the two happily, but she wondered who the heck they were.

"They're from some group or something?" said Natalia, acting as if she didn't know what they meant.

Oscar watched as Tanya dropped the last bag into the car next to the pile of groceries already on half the back seat and the floor but she continued standing outside of the car, watching them. "We actually have some serious questions for you girls," he said.

The three of them looked at the two men. "Okay?" asked Natalia.

Oscar asked, "Have you seen anything_ strange_ with the Dark Troubadors?"

"Strange?" Natalia asked. "Define 'strange'. We're music groups. We're not exactly normal, as it is."

"What does that mean?" asked Dell. "Not normal?"

"We live and work on the road," said Natalia. "That's not normal for most other people, anyway. It is for us. But we travel and work at night and sleep in the daytime. Our clocks are turned upside down. Hell, I'm having a hard time standing here when my body is asking for some sleep since I'm usually still knocked out at this point after finishing up a 2 or 3 a.m. gig."

Oscar's eyes squinted. "Are you sure that's the only reason why your body is asking for sleep right now?"

"What?" asked Natalia, trying to act as if she were clueless as to what they were trying to assert.

"Have any of the Dark Troubadors tried anything strange with you?" asked Dell.

The three girls looked at the two men and then looked at one another. "Strange? Like coming onto us or something?" asked Tanya, scandalized. "No, there ain't no sexual harassment going on with them!" she said as if she were outraged at the assertion. "What's wrong with you guys? Are you just looking for kinky dirt? Are you from some kind of tabloid or something?"

Oscar jumped ahead and asked, straight out, "Have any of them ever tried to bite you?"

The three girls looked at the two men and then looked at one another again before they burst into uproarious laughter.

"Yeah, they're from a tabloid!" Tanya said offhand as she went and immediately placed herself in the backseat of the car, obviously ready to go. She slammed the door shut. "I think we have heard enough weird slander for one day."

Lena was crossing around to the other side of the car, trying to act casual so she could get into the driver's seat as Natalia crossed around to the passenger side. Dell declared to the car full of girls, "You need to get away from them as soon as possible!"

Natalia shook her head. "Dude, we have a contract with them. Why would we risk getting sued for breach of contract when nothing is out of the ordinary? Besides, if anything was going to happen, wouldn't it have happened by now?"

Oscar was the one that said, "Or maybe you're already one of them," directly to Natalia.

Having reached the driver's side, Lena got into the car, closed the door and started it up then. "What's that supposed to mean?" Natalia said as she sat down in the passenger seat.

"You're in league with them!" Oscar declared fervently. He was starting to sweat a little too much and even his partner Dell was looking at him strangely. "You're one of them! You're a vampire!"

The three girls forced out heavy laughter then as Natalia closed the car door. "You hear that guys? I'm out in broad freaking daylight snackin' on chips and they're claiming I'm a vampire!" She shook her head. "Damn that show, Vampire Diaries with those freaking Daywalkers!"

"Yo, that's my show!" Tanya said. "Don't knock it!"

Dell didn't look at all convinced at what his partner had declared. "It _is_ daylight, Oscar," he reminded him. "And she _was_ eating."

Oscar didn't look shook one bit from what he thought. "We'll be watching you."

"I got fans," Natalia shrugged as she motioned for Lena to start driving. The car began to back out of the parking spot little by little. "I'm always watched." The three ladies drove away from the two men who were obviously from the Morrison Group as Natalia threw up two fingers and shouted, "DEUCES!" out of the car window.

###

The three girls were well away from the supermarket by the time Lena said with a wavering voice. "They could have snatched us."

"They sure as hell could have TRIED," Natalia declared angrily.

"We'd have given them a fight they'd never forget, I know that," said Lena, "but still, Morrison? How the hell did they know where we were at?"

Tanya said, "That's the million dollar question. Our tour route is published, but not where we're staying. How the hell did they know the place we were most likely going to shop?"

"And how in the hell would they figure we could go shopping in broad daylight if we're _vampires_?" asked Lena. "They truly are out of their minds!"

"Oscar's box was obviously missing a few crayons," said Natalia.

"One nugget short of a kid's meal!" Tanya agreed.

"That may be so, but that makes it worse," said Lena.

"He's just stupid, how does that make things worse?" asked Natalia.

Lena shook her head. "Because the Morrison Group is powerful, Oscar is with them and that gives him some power. The man is an idiot, yeah! But nothing is worse than an idiot than an idiot with power."

"We're really going to have to watch our backs," Tanya sighed.

"No more daytime shopping, that's for sure," Natalia shook her head. "What a shame." It was starting to feel to her like her life was closing in on her.

###

They got back in time to practice, but told the guys about what had happened, first. After putting all of the food away and talking about what they should do, the band sat around for the better part of an hour, delaying their practice, and continuing to talk about the situation. "There's really nothing we can do," Derek commented as he shook his head, "except what Natalia said. Anytime we need anything, we have to go at night so at least we have some backup looking out for us from above."

"And I think we need to stick together more, guys," said Jewel. "I should have gone with you this morning." Her blue eyes looked patently guilty. "Theoretically two guys can snatch three girls, but it'd be harder with four."

"There was no way for you to know that the Morrison Group was going to track us all the way here!" Lena said as she shook her head. "And we're still confused about that. How the hell did they know where we were?"

"It's easy," said James as his blue eyes narrowed angrily. "The Troubadors set up camp and probably the rumor went flying the minute we put down stakes here a day ago. It's the information age. A butterfly crosses a sensor in New Mexico and they can have that info in New York instantly. It doesn't take long to get across the country these days. They found out where the band was camped and probably sent out teams to each supermarket within some radius of the area. And Natalia… well her eye color is hard to miss."

"Guys, this is depressing me," Natalia shook her head. Everything in her life had turned upside down overnight. "Can we just practice now and finish figuring this out later? I just want to practice and… just let's just forget this for now. I'm freaking stressed out."

"Come on, let's practice," Derek seconded her idea.

####

The band began their tune-up with help from Lena and they were well on the way to a great practice. They paused an hour before sunset to get in dinner and afterward went back to practicing. Before the sun's rays went down fully, Ragnar ripped himself out of the ground and took several painful steps as he tried to reach Natalia.

He knew what had happened from hearing the band's frantic conversation from earlier and he could not bear the thought of what could have happened to her.

The music stopped, little by little, as they all saw Ragnar staggering forward and starting to emit smoke due to the few remaining rays of sunlight.

Natalia dropped the tambourine she had been using and ran over to where he was at, pulled him into the tour bus. "What are you doing up so soon!" she demanded to know. "Are you crazy? Are trying to bake your skin off?!" On their own, her hands were pushing his hair out of his face and she was checking him for burns. He had at least fashioned a heavy cloak around himself and had only smoked up a little bit. "What were you thinking?" she demanded, actually worried about what might have happened to him being exposed to daylight like that.

"I was thinking that perhaps today I could have lost you!" he said. "Do you understand what it is to lie in the Earth and know there was _nothing_ I could do to help you if you were pursued back here?"

She saw it in his eyes, then. He was full of fear and dread at what could have happened to her. Was this the Carpathian equivalent to an anxiety attack? "Ragnar, I'm fine," she reassured him. "I'm fine. You didn't have to hurt yourself like that for my sake."

"I will always put your interests first, your needs," he said as his hands grabbed her shoulders. "Can you not understand it is built into me? I cannot help it and I do not _want_ to help it? I am glad for it!"

She swallowed back saying anything impulsive under the circumstances, because his eyes looking into her eyes that way was giving her thoughts she would rather avoid. "Ragnar," was the only thing she was able to get out. Anything else she allowed herself to say at that moment would have been incriminating!

But the way she said his name spoke volumes to him. For now, it was enough. But there was one thing more he wanted after such a scare. "May I hold you, my Natalia, assure me you are still here?"

"I _am_ here!" she insisted as she was struck by his care. It didn't scare her as much as it had before. "Yes, give me a great big hug if it makes you feel better," she offered with half a smile, trying to keep things light.

But his arms went around her instantly as he drew her deep into his chest, buried his head in her hair and inhaled, exhaled over and over, his hands running over her hair repeatedly, passing the strands through his fingers. She was permeating his lungs and his soul and everything in between.

As for Natalia, there was an unexpected chain reaction happening inside her. It was the closest she had ever been to him, pressed to his skin, feeling his strong arms around her. Some part of her was reaching out for some part of him, tucking into the crook of his soul, trying to convey comfort to him. In the process, some part of him was pouring into her and she could feel the connection between the two of them fully for the first time. She was no longer fighting it. He was, without a doubt, she now knew from the deepest part of her, definitely her lifemate. She already loved him. This could be a problem.


	9. Nightmare

Eclectic did a gig on Thursday night that they had previously agreed to do before they began traveling with the Dark Troubadors. It was the first time they left the protection of traveling with the Carpathian group since joining up with them. Simon and Talon, of course, tailed the young band. Before they departed, Ragnar asked Natalia if he could go along with them, as well. She found herself blushing unintentionally as she gave in to the request almost grudgingly, "Yes, I guess so."

He was glad that at least she had told him 'yes' and not 'no'. But he wanted a more enthusiastic reaction for next time, so he decided to take a piece of Darius' advice.

##

The same procedure was repeated the following night. It was a Friday and Eclectic was once again going to a gig agreed to from way before. But this time, things were slightly different for the almost-couple. The band was less than twenty minutes from departing the safety of the camp.

Natalia was standing next to Lena talking about the route they were going to take when she saw Ragnar approaching. He was wearing a pair of tan slacks and a deep blue shirt that matched his eyes. And he had in one hand a full bouquet of wildflowers. Her eyes widened significantly and her mouth dropped open. "Oh my goodness," she found herself whispering.

Lena grinned and muttered, "Later, girl!" and left to get into their travel van.

"These are for you," Ragnar said to Natalia as he handed the flowers to her. He was thoroughly pleased that he had been able to surprise her with this one act.

She felt her face flame up as she accepted the flowers. An almost shyness was overwhelming her as she looked the wildflowers over. He really had been trying his best not to be a jerk. "I hope you didn't go to a lot of trouble to get these for me," she said as she finally looked him in the eye. She felt her face flaming up as a silly grin graced her features.

"There is no trouble where you are concerned," he said sincerely.

She was blushing even heavier and she wanted to slap herself in the face to make it stop! "Thank you." She was then looking around frantically for someplace to put the flowers. "I'll have to get a vase on the way back from the gig at an all-night shop or something," she said as she walked back to the tour bus to put the flowers on her bunk.

"May I accompany you, once again, to your performance?" he asked formally as he all but followed behind her.

She found herself not only blushing then as they reached the bus, but full on grinning from ear to ear. "Yes."

He opened the door of the bus for her so she could enter, but she stopped just inside the doorway on the top step and pulled him up until he stood on the lower step. It put his face right in direct alignment with hers. "Perfect," she muttered as she looked into his eyes. "Thank you for the flowers," she said as she shrugged. "I'm sorry we got off to such a horrible start. Neither one of us knew what was supposed to happen, I guess, but I think things are going kind of okay now."

"Kind of okay?" he hedged with a half grin.

She laughed a little as she admitted, "Kind of good, I guess."

His heart was being squeezed in his chest as his breath caught at how close she was standing to him. He could just reach out and grab her! But he restrained himself. Things were going very well between them at that moment and he didn't want to mess it up. "Yes, I agree," he said as his skin ached to blend with hers.

She swallowed nervously as she forced herself to try and be open with this man that had dropped into her life. "I just wanted to say that I'm trying to get used to the idea of- of this," she said as she gestured between the two of them in a back and forth motion with one of her hands, "and thank you for being patient. I'm just really trying, okay?" She looked down into his eyes and admitted. "I didn't see this coming and at first I was really angry with you but I can see now that even if you'd come to me and been nice about it I might have been resistant because I didn't want my life and my goals interrupted and…" She sighed. "You've been through a lot and you've been waiting for so long." She shook her head. "But I'm working on my feelings and the fear and-" she found herself at a loss for more words, only looked into his eyes trying to convey her feelings with just her eyes.

He found himself honestly moved by her trying to speak with him, one on one, and tell him how she was feeling. He found a deep well of joy from within from that alone. She was his. The difference was, now she seemed to know and accept it. And he was hers. "Do not apologize to me. You cannot help the way you feel." And he knew that that was true. He found himself incapable then of forcing her to do a thing. She had gone and wrapped him around her finger without even trying. He now understood why so many male lifemates allowed their females to do what he saw as reckless things. He knew he would most likely now join the ranks of male lifemates that 'allowed' what he saw in the past as ridiculous freedoms for his woman. "My Natalia, you may always speak the truth with me," he said on a whisper.

She found herself leaning forward slightly and let her lips brush against his. She was surprised at the lightning feel of contact between their lips and was hijacked by this sense of urgent need to kiss him even deeper.

They both simultaneously grabbed the other and started kissing with a fierceness that neither had expected from the other. Lips and tongues and heated breath was the only sensation the both of them could absorb in that moment. There was an internal groan of relief they both felt deep within as they settled even more against one another. And then, Natalia's mind opened to his. She allowed him to merge with her fully for the first time.

Lena, Rusti and Syndil looked at them from afar. "She's a goner," Rusti said with a huge grin.

##

The tone of things changed between the couple after that. Natalia was no longer wary of Ragnar but he was still very careful of what he did and said since he kept her fear of what a future between them might be in the forefront of his mind. Eclectic did their performance that Friday night and then they had to get up and go attend a children's concert the following afternoon.

In the early morning hours of Friday going into Saturday while the band slept, something strange happened that made them all very nervous.

Jewel sat up in bed, still asleep and let out a bloodcurdling scream. She was swiping at the air as if she were trying to keep someone away from her.

James could recognize his twin's scream anywhere. He jumped up and out of his bunk before anyone else could react. He practically ripped the curtain down that separated the guy's sleeping section from the girls and saw that Jewel was still asleep while sitting up and screaming. The rest of the members of the band were still in the process of jumping up out of bed at that point.

"Jewel, Jewel, wake up!" he was saying as he shook her.

"What's the matter?" asked Natalia as she reached them.

"She gets nightmares sometimes," said James. "I'm surprised this is the first one she's had since we've been out on the road."

Jewel struggled to make it back to consciousness. James looked around himself. "She needs something to pull her out, like give me a cold glass of water! That always works!"

Steve ran and grabbed a cup and filled it with water from a container in their refrigerator and then quickly brought it to James. He took the cup and held it to her lips. Jewel felt the wake-up prompt and began to gobble the water down. Her eyes snapped open and she saw James. "She's still in there," she said frantically. "I can't just leave her in there!"

James shook his head and tried to soothe her. "It was just a dream, you're safe now. There's no one else-"

"No, it's not!" Jewel insisted. "Tanya… Tanya is fighting that vampire alone in the dream!"

James, used to her being incoherent after her nightmares, turned around to try and make his point, "You see? Tanya is right th-" But he saw that Tanya was not up and standing there like everyone else in the band. "Where's Tanya?" he asked, panicked.

Natalia looked at the bunk just above Jewel's. She saw Tanya was still asleep, her braids flung over the pillow haphazardly. Her face was screwed up with determination as her head moved from left to right. "She's still asleep! Something's wrong!" Natalia shouted.

Derek ran to his cousin to look at her, but James was the one who stood on Jewel's bunk to get up to Tanya's level. He sat her up straight. "Tanya!" he shouted at her.

She gasped as her eyes opened and she her hand reared back as she almost slapped James right across the face. The only reason the blow didn't fall was a combination of James catching her hand and Tanya realizing, last minute, that she was no longer dreaming.

She looked around herself wildly. "Is Jewel okay?"

"She's fine," said James, deeply troubled.

Everyone looked at one another confused. "What just happened?" asked Natalia.

##

Jewel sat in a chair at the middle of the bus where they had set up a mini-café area. The rest of the bandmates either sat on the floor or in an available bunk not too far away. Tanya was still pretty silent as she sat next to Jewel.

Jewel shook her head. "I've always had bad dreams. It's how our family came to serve Carpathians. They realized I was getting attacked in my dreams by vampires. No one understand how it happens, not even the Carpathians, it just does. And I've never known how to fight the vampires off that find their way into my head. So long as we stayed near Carpathians, I didn't get the dreams. But I knew I didn't want to live my life like that, scared all of the time about where I slept. So I knew when I came on the road I might get them, but then when we traveled with the Dark Troubadors I knew I definitely wouldn't have them. So how did I have them this time?" she asked, confused.

"This only ever happens when we're near vampires," said James, angry. "This means that there are vampires near…somewhere."

"How did you wind up in her dream?" asked Derek as he turned to his cousin. "You said you don't do that anymore."

"Any_more_?" asked Natalia. "Do what?"

Tanya shrugged as if she were ashamed. She thought she would escape notice if she stayed quiet enough, but everyone was now looking at her. "I used to have dreams, all right?" she said as she looked down at her hands.

"Nightmares?" asked Natalia.

"No. Dreams," Tanya shook her head. "I had dreams where I could almost swear the people I was interacting with really existed in this world. I would talk to them and they would talk back, tell me things. Sometimes it was kids that were scared, hurt, needed someone to tell them they were important and didn't deserve the terrible stuff happening to them. Sometimes it was women in trouble or men who were good and trying to do the right thing despite horrible circumstances." She shrugged. "I don't try to have the dreams. They just happen."

Derek looked hurt. "Why didn't you tell me you were still having them?"

She looked a little bit ashamed. "I don't know, okay?" She wouldn't look anyone in the eyes. "Sometimes the dreams are normal, like the talking to people that I mentioned. But every once in a while I get a dream where I'm fighting something, keeping it away from someone else. I don't know who the someone else is usually. This time I didn't know it was Jewel I was protecting." She shook her head. "Have I been fighting vampires in my dreams all of this time and didn't know it? This is too weird and I don't want to talk about it anymore, okay?"

Lena realized this was a sensitive subject for both girls and they didn't want to have this discussion in a committee. She also realized someone needed to tell them the truth of what they were. Telepaths. Potential lifemates. That was going to be a difficult conversation. She looked at Natalia and she nodded. "Guys," said Natalia, "can Lena and I talk to Jewel and Tanya alone? I think they need some privacy right now."

"I'm not leaving my sister!" snapped James.

She shook her head. "He doesn't understand," she said as tears rolled down her face. "When this happens I can't help it and I can't stand it. I just _hate_ it." She stood up to go and walk out of the bus.

"Jewel!" James protested, "You can't just-"

"Leave me alone!" she shouted at her brother and left the bus.

"You're still in your pajamas!" he protested at her retreating back.

"Whose gonna see her, man?" asked Derek. "Just let her go. It's nearly daylight now and we're behind a crapload of Darius' safeguards. Nothing will happen to her."

They didn't talk about it anymore, but everyone felt very strange about the incident. They had a gig with the Dark Troubadors at a bar that Saturday night and they just went on as if nothing had happened.

But after the gig was over that night, Darius pulled both Jewel and Tanya aside to speak with them. Rusti was with him, but she said nothing at first as she sat next to him. "Are you ready to reveal to me the reason for your nightmare, Jewel? And this talent you possess, Tanya?" asked Darius.

Both girls looked at one another. "Who squealed?" asked Jewel, feeling betrayed.

"Do you forget that while I sleep in the Earth I monitor all within my protection domains? I see now I must cast an additional protection for dreams. I was previously unaware that this was necessary. I see now it is. But that is not why I have called you here. You will speak with me truthfully, young ladies. No one has betrayed your trust."

After both girls told him what they needed to, he looked intrigued. "I must call Gregori. He will want to examine the both of you." Both girls groaned as if they were in pain. "You do not wish to see my brother?" he asked halfway teasingly.

"Seen him once in passing, once was enough," said Jewel.

"I've never seen him, but I've heard enough," exclaimed Tanya.

Darius teased Tanya even worse then. "Fearless vampire fighter, you are afraid to meet the boogeyman?"

She smiled almost shyly.

"Stop teasing them!" Rusti laughed as she shook her head. "Look girls. I'm not going to sugar-coat this. You probably already know you're telepaths and you just don't want to think about it. I understand that, believe me. But you have to be careful at all times because you're special. Vampires are drawn to you, Jewel. And Tanya, you seem to be drawn to stopping them from attacking others in their dreams. But if word about you two gets out, Carpathian men for miles are going to be trying to test themselves against you to see if you're their lifemate because you're both over 18. They're going to see it as open season to try and court you."

Jewel looked annoyed, but they couldn't tell what the expression on Tanya's face was. She seemed…confused.

"What's the matter?" Rusti asked Tanya, concerned.

"I'm _not_ a telepath. It's just dreams," Tanya insisted. "That's all. Just dreams."

Rusti knew it was a form of denial. "Sure they are, sweetie," she said to the younger woman softly. "Just promise me you will always watch your back. If you're fighting them like this and keeping them from preying on people in their dreams, you've already pissed off some seriously powerful vampires."

Tanya looked nervous all over again. "Okay."

As the two young ladies left, Darius watched them go. "There is no way they will ever be allowed to not have a shadow from this moment onward. Jewel has had one in Simon all of these years. But Tanya must be watched at all times while she is not traveling with us. It is imperative. It is only a matter of time that one of those vampires tracks her down and tries to discard or possess her." Darius looked at Rusti. Her feelings were a swirl of horror and depression on behalf of both girls. "You are sad," he realized.

She swallowed back something. "I'm worried about Tanya in particular. I just get this feeling…" She shuddered as if she were cold.

That did it for him. His wife's instincts were usually very accurate. "I am calling for Gregori to come to us now," declared Darius. And he did just that.

###

By Sunday midmorning, the band was absolutely knocked out, exhausted. They didn't rise until 3 in the afternoon. "Oh man, it's _late_!" exclaimed James as he looked at the clock.

"It's cool, man, they don't expect us at that club until 7," said Derek.

"We have to get on the road by 6 then," said Lena as she looked at a map of the area. "The GPS is saying it'll only take us forty-five minutes to get there, but we still have to set up and let's face it, you never can tell what's going to happen on a road you're not familiar with."

"That's true," said Derek as he seemed to mull over that bit by bit. "You know what? Better safe than sorry. Let's leave at 5:30."

"I agree," said Lena.

"All right, people!" said Derek as he turned. "Since our agent ain't here, I get to give the peptalk!"

Everyone laughed.

"We're bouncing up out of here at 5:30 p.m. We can make it to that club nice and early, set up, check the acoustic, bla bla bla. So let's look alive!"

The girls and the guys got into gear, packing up whatever they needed and getting themselves ready.

##

They made it to the bar on time and was able to set up in a timely manner. The bar itself was more like a swanky lounge environment. The fact that they had to leave the protection of the Carpathians to honor this gig was a fact that bothered Natalia at the back of her mind. It was still daylight when they left camp, so there was no choice in that regard. She knew the Carpathians could rise while there was still a tiny bit of light left in the sky, but it still bothered her that they were nearly an hour away. She supposed she felt uneasy about a lot of things. Between the fact that she had been unable to bid Ragnar good-bye and those weird dreams the girls had had the day before…

She rolled her shoulders backward then moved her head side to side, trying to loosen up. She forced herself to go on when it was time. The show must always go on.

They began their set at 7:30, as planned. As Natalia went into her second song, she was able to relax a little bit more.

It was nearly ten past 8:00 and the band had come back from a 5 minute break and begun playing again. Less than a minute into their second set, someone at the back of the club screamed. The band played on since they were used to way more raucous goings on whenever they performed at places that served alcohol. Even the nicer establishments, like this one, had occasional incidents. They all figured at the backs of their minds that the bouncers would take care of whatever situation was going on.

Soon, a full on scuffle seemed to be taking place, but it was happening around a corner and out of their sight. All they could hear was screams from more than one person now. Jewel felt a strange tingling up her spine and knew what it was about to come exploding out of the back of the club. She trailed off from playing her bass guitar as she looked back at her twin on the drums and frowned at him as she shook her head. She wanted to tell him to run! But before she could open her mouth-

Vampire, after vampire came walking out of the back of the club and immediately set to their task. They were grabbing the nearest patrons and draining them, one by one. There were five in all and two were obviously newly turned, still quite young.

As the people made a mad dash for the front or side emergency door of the establishment, in a panic, there was always some vampire near to grab them and make certain they didn't make it out of that door. Blood was spattering everywhere as the young band had already stopped playing and stood there at the front of the room, literally in shock. None of them had ever seen such a thing in their lives. And it all happened in a matter of seconds.

Lena rushed up on stage then since she had been in the front row. She tried to usher them all out through a different side door that none of the patrons were running for, hoping the vampires wouldn't notice their exit. What she wouldn't do at that moment for her aunt's ability to shield others!

But one of the vampires most certainly did notice their group. He was one of the newly turned. He tried to smile charmingly as he moved with lighting speed to block their exit. He was tall and his hair was well groomed. His clothing was still in good condition, too, as he gave them all his fake smile that was more of a grimace. "So many gifts here in one place," he said as he looked at each female, "for me…" His face turned openly sinister, then. "There is no reason to share, after all, is there?" he asked no one in particular.

Natalia remembered an exit off of the side wing of the stage. She grabbed Steve since he was the nearest to her and pulled at him. The band followed behind them as that vampire remained standing where he was, seemingly in no hurry to intercept them. He simply laughed, a sound filled with mocking and malice, as they all ran for the other exit. They knew there was something he knew that they didn't, but instinct propelled them to continue to run anyway in the hope that they could maybe escape this nightmare they had walked into.

Natalia was frantically yelling for Ragnar in her mind. _They've come! They will kill our boys!_

Lena found herself only able to scream in her mind _Andriev, Julian, HELP!_

The band exited the other back side door, the sound of laughing vampires directly behind them. As soon as the door opened and they ran through, the vampires were at their heels.

But Simon and Talon were already there having just arrived and realizing which exit they were going for. The two hunters stood in front of the five vampires exiting the establishment as Ragnar appeared out of the sky and grabbed Natalia, snatched her up and began ascending into the night sky at a breakneck speed.

"No!" she was screaming. "Noooo!"

"You were in danger!" he said, unwilling to stop.

"You go back and you help Simon and Talon now!" she commanded him.

"No!"

She started crying piteously then. "They're going to kill Steve and Derek and James if they overpower Simon and Talon! They're going to take the girls! You know it's true! You know it!"

He found himself shouting at the sky in anger as her emotional but totally reasonable deductions beat him over the head. He knew it was true. If they could, the vampires would kill Steve and James and Derek. And they would take the other girls and do unmentionable things to them. Ragnar turned back with her to go and help the other two hunters.


	10. Rock and a Hard Place

Ragnar pushed against the instincts urging him to get his lifemate as far away from those vampires as possible. He turned to bring them back to the scene of things.

Upon his descent through the clouds, he saw that Natalia's fear was in fact true. Simon and Talon were surrounded. One vampire, though, had already been incapacitated. That one, in truth, was nearly dead, his blackened heart which had been removed and thrown far away from his body was working its way back toward the gaping hole of his chest cavity. The other two Carpathians were obviously too busy fighting the still standing vampires to destroy the heart. The returning Ragnar immediately summoned lightning and incinerated the heart with the bolt as soon as he landed with Natalia.

As this went on, the rest of the band members were on foot, trying to circle around the main confrontation and reach the open road. Of the four remaining vampires, the one closest to their position sped over to the young people, grabbed Steve and James by their heads and knocked their skulls together. There was a sickening 'crunch' sound from at least one of the young men as Jewel screamed, "Nooo!" The sadistic vampire laughed at her distress.

Ragnar saw the situation. Had he been alone, it would have been easy to simply speed over and help them. But he could not do so because he would leave Natalia behind. He grabbed her by the hand, keeping her behind him, and attempted to go around the fight between the two Carpathian hunters and the three vampires, but another of the vampires left the fight with the hunters and jumped in front of him, engaged him in direct battle. It prevented Ragnar from getting to the band members on time to prevent what happened next.

Since she was now the one closest to the undead at that point with Steve and James knocked out, Derek tried to grab Tanya and pull her in another direction. The vampire stood and waited, toyed with them a little first. Since he did, it looked as if, for a split second, they might make it away from the scene of the battle. The four remaining band members were already at a preliminary run when the vampire literally reached out one hand and pulled Tanya back by grabbing a handful of her braids. He dragged her back to him and lifted her body as if she weighed nothing. The band members realized something was wrong and turned to look just as the horrifying monster bared his teeth menacingly at them. He proceeded to intentionally bite down as hard as possible into her neck, then began to roughly shake his head this way and that as Tanya's body jerked from side to side and she screamed in agony. Then he seemed to settle in, relax and begin to enjoy his 'meal'.

Derek, running purely on instinct, tried to return to get her away from him. Both Lena and Jewel were at his heels, also trying to see what they could also do. But when he reached out his hand to grab her, "Get them out of here!" Tanya shrieked at him as she kicked his hand away with her foot.

"I'm not leaving you!" her cousin shouted, tears flooding his eyes, as he fell to his hands and knees. At that moment, Derek was honestly ready to die where he was along with her. Lena and Jewel had their hands under his arms, trying to get him to stand up.

"Get **OUT of **_**here**_!" she said on a scream as the pain from the vampire gnawing into her neck increased. The light left her eyes and she began to go limp right before them.

Derek, tears still running down his face, stood quickly as an even worse feeling of horror overwhelmed him. Despite that, he went to carry out what he saw as her last request and tried to grab Lena and Jewel's hands as they went to turn and go, but the vampire dropped Tanya to the ground quickly as if she were a doll he was throwing aside. He sped close before they could even finish turning around and backslapped Derek so hard, the young man was knocked out cold.

Lena and Jewel had no time to react, only grabbed one other's hands and began running indiscriminately as the vampire stood there and laughed. He obviously thought there was no way they could escape since he was not pursuing. They ran right in the opposite direction they had been trying to go before and stumbled into the side of a very dazed looking Natalia crouched off to the side of Ragnar, tears running down all of their faces. "Keep running!" Ragnar told them as he circled around to cover their flight. "Natalia, go with them! Go NOW!"

With the shove of command in his voice, Natalia found herself standing and running away along with the other two girls as Ragnar launched himself into the battle with now two of the vampires by throwing himself directly into the path of the one that had been chasing them.

The situation was a true mess.

##

It was quiet up in the clouds at least.

Darius and Julian shapeshifted into their human forms as they fell out of the sky. They saw and now heard the horrible scene playing out before them. Tanya was lying on the ground, bloodied and obviously nearly drained of her life essence. All three of the human young men were on the ground, unconscious.

There were now two dead vampires, one whose heart had already been incinerated and the other one had not. Ragnar, Talon and Simon were still fighting three others. But Darius and Julian felt bewildered as they wondered: Where was Natalia, Jewel and Lena?

Darius called lighting down and incinerated the other dead vampire's heart, then disposed of the two remaining vampire bodies in the same manner. After he was done with that, he directed the lighting into the exposed wound in the chest of one of the vampires. It was the one fighting Ragnar. He had obviously struck a blow there, but hadn't been able to remove the heart. But with help from Darius, that vampire instantly died on the spot as the lightning exploded into his chest, burning his heart and destroying him utterly.

With five hunters, total, in no time the fight turned lethal for the last two remaining vampires. Within seconds, they diminished them to nothing. As Darius disposed of the bodies with lightning, Ragnar said, "Natalia is in danger, I must go and find her!"

"We will go with you," said Talon. "We must find the other females, as well."

Julian wanted to go with them, but he turned to check on the unconscious band members still there, on the ground. He knew he was being biased, but he found himself drawn to checking on the female first and saw that she was struggling to breathe. He lifted the girl delicately and her head lolled back, long braids dragging in the dirt, a gaping wound in her neck. Whichever of the vampires had done this intentionally inflicted as much pain and suffering on her as he could while still keeping her alive.

Closing his eyes, Julian briefly checked for her life force. "She is dying," he said in a strained voice as his eyes opened. There were tears stinging the backs of his eyes, but he would not let them fall. There was possibly some Carpathian out there who this girl belonged to. If they could not save her, what life would he be doomed to?

Darius looked at the three hunters, "Go, find the females. We will attend the young humans. I called Gregori to me a day ago and I sense that he is near. He shall help us heal them all. We will bring them to the caverns near our home."

"I will tell Andriev to find Lena," said Julian. "He was already en route the last I contacted him since she mentally called to us."

The three hunters nodded their acknowledgement and then took to the sky leaving Darius and Julian to deal with the unconscious band members.

But they all knew it did not look good for Tanya. Literally only Gregori could save her now.

##

Far away, the three missing ladies felt as if they were in some kind of a vice grip though no physical hands held them. There was a snarling, disgusting creature that had intercepted them not three minutes into their run.

He had bound them by means of some spell or Dragonseeker magic none of them had ever heard of and all three lost consciousness for an unknown amount of time.

When they 'came to' they saw they were all in some kind of a cave. Since he had not been with the other five vampires that had originally attacked the bar, they all realized that the events of that night were simply a ruse for him to grab one or all of the women in the band.

Jewel was still halfway unconscious because this vampire seemed to be quite powerful. Although she seemed to draw them to her, unusually more so than any other, being near them always made her sick and woozy.

This thing was just too close for any of their comfort. He was standing at the mouth of the cave and it looked as if he were in the middle of strange half dance, obviously erecting safeguards…

_We have to distract him before he finishes what he's doing!_ Lena mentally sent to Natalia.

_I'm on it!_ Natalia acknowledged. She concentrated hard, trying to telekinetically knock the vampire's legs out from under him. She felt a brief flare of satisfaction as he did the most strange looking 'legs in the air' maneuver as he howled and hit the ground.

They were in fear for their lives and horrified at their predicament, but poor Jewel was so woozy and out of it she couldn't stifle a gust of quick laughter that jumped out of her at the sight of the way he hit the ground.

The horrid vampire turned, safeguard unfinished, and his haunted eyes raked over the three of them. He was a decrepit fearful sight to behold. Grey skinned with scraggly tufts of red hair, his teeth had rotting black blood between them. His clothes were disheveled and Lena felt as if she were reliving that first vampire all over again that had tried to snatch her when she was fourteen. She realized at that moment what would have happened to her had Andriev not come to help her all of those years ago… Eventually something like _this_ would have gotten to her. She closed her eyes tight, tried to tell herself that she could feel Andriev drawing closer to their location. But this felt just like her recurring nightmares from years before after that vampire attack. And why did this vampire look so much like that other one? Was her mind playing tricks on her?

The undead looked at them and all three girls knew better than to look him in the eyes. He hissed angrily. "Who did that to me?" His voice grated at their ears. The disgusting sound was just too much on top of all else and poor Jewel began to scream in horror and found herself unable to stop. If being near vampires hurt her physically, she now saw that hearing their voices was ten times worse!

"You will stop that noise!" he snapped. "SHUT UP!" he barked.

"YOU shut up!" Natalia snapped back at him, trying to take his attention off of the now whimpering Jewel. "Don't you talk to her like that!"

The vampire's head rolled around, serpent-like, as he began inspecting Natalia from afar. "Songbird!" he tried to say sweetly, but it didn't come out that way. "I will enjoy _violating_ you."

Lena tried to pretend she wasn't stuck in the situation. She didn't have to worry, though, because Natalia seemed determined to keep his attention on her and off of the two of them. "My Lifemate will kill you!" she boasted.

"Life_mate_!" he spat with his almost guttural voice as he stood back up from where he had been knocked down. "Then why did he allow you to be on your own?" was his seemingly cunning question to her.

There was no answer to that one. Natalia felt patently guilty. She was back with them now because she had insisted that he turn back and help the other hunters fight the vampires. If she got out of this, she suspected she would never hear the last of it from Ragnar about making him go back and bring her back into danger.

But the vampire took her silence the wrong way. Perhaps, he figured, she was in doubt of her lifemate's intentions to save her? "You are here, alone, because either your lifemate is not _truly_ your lifemate or he does not care for you properly. But with me, none will be able to take you away. You will be at my side _**F.O.R.E.V.E.R**_! None will ever come near you again."

_Is that supposed to make you feel BETTER?_ Lena frantically thought at Natalia.

The vampire looked at Lena then as if he sensed her mental activities. "My brother almost attained you years ago, but he did not succeed. I have a vendetta against _you_ for you are the true reason he is dead now!"

Lena rolled her eyes and looked up at the ceiling. No wonder he looked so much like that other undead that had come for her years before. She pretty much was done with the situation at that point and just wanted this all to end. "Lord, help me find a happy place or something…"

"I will enjoy your violation before I kill you!" he continued to threaten Lena.

Natalia was concentrating on a large rock sitting on the ground. She was waiting for the right moment, needed him to be in its path a little more since the angle was off. She had used a lot of her energy before… _Lena, piss him off. Make him walk toward us…_

_ Are you out of your ever-loving __**mind**__?_

_ Just do it!_

_ All right… But this better work, cause I had __**other plans**__ for falling into bed with a Carpathian and it did NOT involve being abused by Sir Hair Tufts-a-Lot! _ Lena sucked her teeth casually. "You know why your brother really died?"

The undead looked at her, almost daring her to say something wrong.

But Lena didn't even bother looking him in the eye as she looked around herself while saying, oh-so-casually, "He couldn't fight. He was a straight up punk."

The vampire bristled at first but then he began to laugh. "Is that your infantile attempt to force me into a state of distracting anger?" He turned back around to begin the safeguards, once again.

"_He's_ smart," Lena spoke of him to the other two girls as if he weren't even there. "But he's ugly as sin."

"I know, right?" Natalia chimed in. "_Pobrecito_! Look at that _hair_!"

The vampire whirled back around to look at them, angry. Apparently he thought he was projecting a much better appearance to the ladies than he actually was.

"So let's get down to business," Lena began a new tactic to distract him into not looking at Natalia. "What was your plan for bringing us here?" They were all glad the vampire didn't seem to notice he never finished erecting that safeguard.

Jewel was full-on crying by then. "Don't make him _angry_!"

"Why not?" asked Lena. "Don't you think it's a dumb thing for him to do? This man goes and grabs three women. It's the kind of men like that, trying to get with all these females at the same time?" She sucked her teeth disgustedly. "He probably doesn't even know what to do with one."

"You would do well to **be **_**quiet**_!" he hissed as he turned back around and started his safeguard erection all over again.

"Or else? What?" asked Lena. "What are you going to do from all the way over _there_?"

Natalia said out of the side of her mouth, but loud enough for the vampire to hear, "He knows he better _not_ touch us, that's why."

Jewel was bawling as she asked, "Guys, are you crazy?"

Lena shook her head, "The therapists and the psychiatrist said not to call myself that. So I prefer to think of myself as having a few challenges… That's what those little pills are for that I take. And I'm _challenged_ because of jerk-wads like that one standing at the front of this cave doing what looks like 'the safety dance' who keep popping up in my life!" She sighed as loudly as possible. "Went and snatched us up and is now procrastinating on whatever his original plan was." She shook her head and then dared utter one more verbal shove. "Coward."

He screamed in rage as he turned and began rampaging toward where they were being held at the back of the cave. Natalia waited until the perfect moment and then concentrated hard. She mentally lifted and hurled the almost boulder-sized rock at the vampire's head. When it impacted, the rock hit the vampire and pinned him, head-first, to the cave wall. The sight was almost grotesquely funny, something from out of a vintage cartoon. The three of them were immediately freed from whatever mental vise grip he had on them since he probably needed to partially concentrate to utilize it.

Natalia and Lena grabbed one of Jewel's hands each and ran past the vampire who was already trying to work his head out from under the rock.

They made it to the mouth of the cave and out of it, relieved to be back outside again. But there was nothing but land in front of them and they had no idea where they were since they had been brought into the cave while still unconscious. They took off running anway and kept on going even as they heard the rock hitting the floor from behind them. He had already worked himself free!

"And I went and made him _MAD_!" screamed Lena into the wind.

"Run faster! FASTER!" screamed Jewel.

"Hell, yes, I will!" screamed Lena. "After what I said about his punk brother he's going for a bite of brown sugar as soon as he can!"

"Not if he's in the mood for Dulce De Leche first," Natalia shouted as her and Lena suffered a moment of hysteria mixed with laughter.

"You two are _**c-razy**_!" Jewel screamed as they all ran.

But it didn't matter how fast they ran, already they could see the shadow of the vampire via the moon, coasting along, flying above them. He was hissing with rage as he followed and then overtook their position. He landed in front of them.

"This just got realer," Natalia said as she shook her head and the three of them stopped in their tracks and began backing up from him. "Anybody got anymore ideas?"

Jewel at that point figured it was only going to go downhill so she wound up putting out, "Kung fu fighting?" in a shaky voice as hysterical laughter bubbled up out of her mouth.


	11. The Last Woman Standing

The three of them were standing there, at their wits end. They knew that at that point death was more than a real possibility. It was starting to look like a certainty. Natalia grasped at a straw, whispered. "Lena, do that thing you do! The one you just started trying out a couple of months back."

Her friend knew exactly what she was talking about. Lena had learned to tap directly into a mind and bring about some aspect of the past, a sort of illusionary ability. But she had never tried it on a vampire. She frowned. "It might not work."

"We have to try something!"

Lena really didn't want to sift through the memories of a vampire, but nodded anyhow. They were, after all, pretty desperate. "Okay…"

Natalia knew Lena needed to be still and silent in order to concentrate since it was still very difficult for her to pull off such a feat. So Natalia turned to the vampire. This time, she was the one who needed to keep his attention, so she began her own trash-talking session. "Were you planning on killing us now or later? Because so far, you're doing a horrible job of it. I mean, you're just standing there. For what?"

Jewel caught on that time and tried to help. "Maybe he's trying to figure out in what order he'd like to eat us."

"For real?" asked Natalia as if she were ignoring the vampire. He was standing there looking between the two girls, because he really was trying to decide who he was going to eat first! This lot was far too disobedient to keep for good! Except for the songbird. He would keep her… she would suffer long for her impudence…

"For real, for real," Jewel answered the question. "Like, I eat far too much garlic," she said toward the vampire. "You'd be better off just letting me go. Wouldn't that like burn you or something?"

Natalia shook her head. "That's nonsense from the movies! You'd just taste better not worse!"

"Well don't tell _him_ that!" Jewel protested.

"_Enough_!" shrieked the vampire. But, distracted, he slowly began to turn to his right as if he saw something near him. His vitriol and anger seemed to bleed out of him as his face went almost passive. In that moment, there was a glimpse of who he had once been before walking the road of evil. "Mother?" he whispered, in disbelief. "Mother, you cannot be here…" And then he began speaking in Carpathian. But to Jewel and Natalia, there was no one standing there.

Natalia turned and looked at Lena. She saw that her friend was still and quiet, eyes zoned out. She was, at that moment, in direct contact with the vampire's mind, had to have sifted far back into his memories to do what she was doing at that moment. Natalia felt awful for whatever Lena had seen in order to break in there.

At first, her and Jewel began to try to lead her away from the scene, but then a trail of blood began oozing from Lena's nose. "What's happening to her?" whispered Jewel, confused, as they stopped in their tracks. "Is that supposed to happen to her?"

"Come out of it," Natalia shook Lena. But she seemed to be trapped in her illusion as more blood began pouring from her nose. Natalia then screamed it that time, "Come out, now!" But she remained trapped in his mind, in whatever conversation was happening between the long-gone Carpathian and his mother. It was taking a much worse toll, too, as blood began pouring from her nose in a hearty gush of fluid.

Natalia, at that point, became too angry to be afraid of the vampire as she turned and screamed, "NO!" at him. She found herself telekinetically hurling the vampire backward with a volley stronger than anything she had ever used. He flew backward and hit the ground hard as Lena's body stumbled backward, as well. Her eyes registered her surrounding but then she was clutching at her head, frowning. She looked between her friends as if she wanted to say something, but instead her eyes rolled back in her head and she seemed to pass out.

The vampire was standing up, once again, this time advancing upon them fast. "She will pay dearly for using my mother against me in that way," he was hissing, obviously having figured out what had happened to him.

Jewel covered Lena's body with her own as she sobbed and shook her head. There was just too much blood…

Natalia stood in front of the both of them, using her body as a shield as she pointed at him. "You will not touch her, you disgusting, mangy creature!" she screamed as she began to mentally pick up the only available rocks and branches near to hit the advancing vampire. Jewel followed suit, picking up rocks with just her bare hands to hurl at him, but that quickly, he was upon them. But there was a scream that came hurtling down at them from the skies…

##

Andriev had heard Lena's mental call so long ago and had rushed to where she was as fast as he could. But even that took time.

As he descended from the clouds, he had clear sight of the three girls. Natalia and Jewel were still standing and Jewel seemed poised to throw something at the vampire that was rushing at them. But Lena. His eyes zeroed in on her body on the ground, saw the blood on her face and spilling down the front of her shirt. Andriev lost it. He screamed in agony at the sight of her as he came streaking out of the sky like a fire and ice comet.

Just before Andriev landed on him, the vampire's hand reared back. He delivered a heavy backhand to Jewel's face. The girl became terribly dazed out for the time being, stunned by the force of the blow as she flopped down clumsily next to Lena's body.

At that point, Andriev plowed into him, the two of their bodies colliding as the flying Carpathian's momentum had them rolling on the ground in an uncontrolled tangle. They were moving so fast, Natalia's eyes couldn't keep up. And then she felt the presence of Ragnar drawing near.

Ragnar, Simon and Talon dropped out of the sky, just then. Simon and Talon went to help Andriev, but the Carpathian's indignant fury needed no help as his hand very savagely broke into and reached past the chest cavity of this vampire he knew from his youth. Without a second thought or hesitation, he ripped his heart out.

Ragnar immediately went to Natalia's side and grabbed her, checking her over at all points to make certain she was not injured. He was too busy looking at and running his hands over her arms and stomach and back, checking for injuries, but she was shouting, "Something's wrong with Lena!"

He looked down at both the unconscious young ladies. Jewel seemed to be fine, breathing steadily in and out. Her breathing, matter of fact, seemed to improve substantially once the other three hunters killed the vampire and disposed of his remains.

But Lena's face was going almost grayish as the blood coating her face began to darken. He shook his head. "Something is very wrong here." He could feel Natalia's growing horror as she looked down at her friend.

"I'm no healer," she whispered as she cried. "What do we do? What do we do?"

Ragnar closed his eyes and checked Lena from the inside. It didn't look good. He came back out and shook his head. "She needs someone more versed in the healing arts than myself for this." He swallowed as he admitted. "But Gregori is working on Tanya right now."

"She's still alive?" asked Natalia, grasping at something, anything.

"For the time being, yes."

Andriev came back then, having been cleansed by lightning from the blood of the disgusting creature he had gotten on him. He leaned down and picked up Lena in his arms. He said not one word to any of them, resisted giving in to despair and anger, but put his energy into streaking straight upward into the night sky to rush her to Darius, the only other one he knew could probably heal her since Gregori was most likely busy trying to save Tanya.

Simon picked up the still unconscious Jewel and followed Andriev. "You go ahead of me," said Talon as he watched behind him. "I will make certain none follows our travel."

Ragnar nodded at him and picked up Natalia, flew up into the clouds with her and let Talon be his retreating guard.

###

They reached a cave system close to the home that had been made by the Dark Troubadours. Once inside, several caverns interconnected.

They reached one of the deepest parts and there were more Carpathians there than Natalia had ever seen in one place.

In one cavern there was Gregori and Savannah working hard at trying to save Tanya. Candles had been lit there and in the other cave systems.

In another tunnel right next to that one was Darius, Desari, Syndil, Barack and Dayan. They seemed to be in the middle of attempting to heal whatever injuries Steve, Derek and James had sustained. Already, Steve's eyes were starting to open as he looked up at Desari. Derek was already beginning to stir, as well. But James seemed to be unable to awaken.

"This one is connected to his sister. They are twins," Dayan said as he turned and saw that Jewel was unconscious as well. "We're going to have to heal them in tandem. If we put them together-"

Barak nodded, "I agree," and beckoned Simon over to him and Dayan. They took the twins aside and began working on them as a team.

Andriev handed Lena over to Darius. "Please," was all he was able to get out, his voice anguished.

MaryAnne and Manolito arrived, just then. "I can help you heal her," she said as she swallowed, looking down at Lena. "I know the inside of that mind pretty well."

Darius nodded over at MaryAnne as she stepped next to him.

Natalia was standing next to Ragnar. She fell to her knees then wondering how it was she was the only band member to escape unscathed. But she turned to look at Ragnar, saw his eyes start to close. He turned into light and checked her from the inside to make certain nothing had touched her in all of that time. After a few minutes, he 'came to' back in his own body.

"Anything?" she whispered as his eyes opened. She saw that that had drained him a little, was worried for him.

He pulled her in close, up under his shoulder and held her as if he wasn't even thinking of letting her go for at least a week. "You are untouched."

She nodded, but only slightly relieved. She could see Steve and Derek trying to stand up as Desari and Syndil forced them to sit back down. "But how is Tanya?" Derek asked as the Carpathians forced him to drink some water.

"She's getting the best help available," promised Desari. "Gregori is working on her now."

He tried to get up again, but Syndil forced him to sit. "Repeat after me," she said to him. "It will help heal her and the rest of your companions."

Syndil began the healing chant, the same one Savannah was in the other room using. Soon all of the Carpathians in the caverns not actively working on healing were chanting, including Ragnar. Steve and Derek caught onto the chant as Ragnar looked at Natalia and mouthed the syllables to her. She caught on.

But she looked over at the place where James and Jewel were lying, where Barak and Dayan worked. The twins still weren't moving. Lena lay in her spot, as well, Darius and MaryAnne taking turns going into her mind to heal the damage, Andriev standing off to the side looking anguished even as he chanted.

Natalia felt a healing breezeway moving through the cave system and infusing all of the injured with its care. A strange chill went through her body as she sensed Carpathians the world over lending their voices to cure so many possible Lifemates. But it was still touch and go, especially for Tanya.

Ragnar looked at Natalia and something within him understood. He wanted to take her away from that place of pain and anguish and uncertainty. But he knew she would not go. He looked back at her friends, being in such close proximity to them and her he could feel her love for them. And he realized that it did not diminish the love that was already beginning to grow between them. He put away the thought in his mind of trying to go anywhere.

Instead, he went over to Gregori and said to him, "I offer freely what you need so that you can continue to do your work in full strength, Healer."

Gregori accepted.


	12. As You Wish

_A/N - I edited this a lot. If I missed some errors I am very sorry. A lot happens here to tie up this part of the story, so it is a long chapter!_

* * *

At some point, Natalia's exhaustion began to win. The night had been a harrowing one. It felt as if the lights had been knocked out of her by worrying over so many of her friends at once. As the adrenaline from the night's events wore off, she found herself drifting to sleep amidst the warmth of the candlelit cave, Ragnar's strong arms holding her close to his chest and the ever present sound of the healing chant.

At some point in her half asleep haze she could hear Gregori saying, "I have checked her and she does possess abilities. We had to do extensive work on her internally and I fear it may have been too much of a shock to her system. We may have to convert her tonight to increase her chances of survival."

Natalia's eyes snapped open and she found herself struggling to fight exhaustion in order to stand up on her feet. To whom was he referring? Tanya or Lena? "Who? Who!" she began asking frantically as she stood, surprising even Ragnar with how quickly she had awakened. She realized that Gregori was speaking with Derek and then understood who it was he had to be referring to. "Tanya? You mean Tanya?"

The healer turned and looked directly at her. Deep grey eyes stared back, eyes like silver light. Behind those eyes was dead seriousness, his body a massive compact hunk of solid rock. He was quite intimidating, taken as a whole. She found herself involuntarily backing up into Ragnar's chest.

Gregori gave her a small, unexpected smile and half bow to perhaps put her at ease. But that smile faded quickly as he explained, "Initially we assumed that the large amount of blood lost was the reason your friend Tanya was struggling to breathe."

"Do you really think you'll have to convert her tonight? Isn't there another way?" asked Natalia.

"Is there?" asked Derek, bringing Gregori's attention back to him. "I mean, I think she'll be okay if you can just find another way. I'll donate blood to her if that's what I need to do. We're the same type, I think."

"That will not be necessary," said Gregori. "We realized once we went in to heal her that she was struggling to breathe, not due to excessive loss of blood, but due to intentional damage to her lungs. But if you do not wish for her to convert at this time-"

"She should have a choice!" Natalia found herself butting in again.

Gregori seemed as if he would actually laugh in that moment. "When last I checked, I was the Healer."

"Stop teasing them!" Savannah threw from the chamber where she sat with Tanya, keeping an eye on the still unconscious girl.

Derek nodded. "Yeah, if you can, find another way. I don't think Tanya would take it so well to wake up—well, somebody else without her permission first." He seemed to suddenly realize something that Gregori had said. "And what do you mean, intentional damage to her lungs? How did that happen?"

"She was intentionally infected by the spores of the vampire during his attack upon her. Those spores went primarily for her lungs, but they damaged other areas in her body, as well. We managed to clean her of them fully, but damage remains for the time being until she has fully healed on her own timetable." The healer nodded. "We dared not use Carpathian blood since it would steep her into our world to some extent while she still remained in yours. She needs nourishment to heal and she would not be able to partake of your form of nourishment as needed in that state of limbo, partway in our world and partway in yours. We will have Gary bring us things from your conventional allopathic medicine as needed so that we will not have to convert her at this time. But she will have to remain in bed for at least the next week, perhaps two, until she is fully healed. Do you understand?"

"You're going to have to argue with her about that!" laughed Derek with a measure of relief.

##

Two hours before sunrise they moved all of the young people from the caves to the large home built by the Troubadors.

Natalia went from room to room and checked on everyone, Ragnar still by her side. "You should go to ground," she said to him. "It's almost time for the sun to come up."

He shook his head as he took her hand in his, kissed two of her fingers. "I will remain with you until the last moment that I am able."

She shook her head at his stubbornness, but didn't say another word. She did, after all, really like having him with her.

Natalia and Ragnar entered the room for Derek and Steve, first, to see how they were doing. But she saw that Derek was not there, realized that he had most likely gone to check on Tanya in her room. Steve was already fast asleep and they decided to go and not disturb him.

They both left that room to go into the next and check on the twins. They saw that Jewel and James were just beginning to stir in their beds. Dayan and Barak were there and had pushed the beds together so that the twins could be closer in proximity to one another. The two hunters remained since they felt responsible to make certain the young people came back to consciousness before they went to ground. "What made you decide to heal them in tandem?" asked Ragnar on a half whisper so as not to disturb the two young people just starting to awaken.

Dayan smiled at the curious and confused eyes of James starting to opening. The young man was looking directly up at him as Dayan answered, "Studies have shown that twins, identical and fraternal, after being born, when placed together to sleep simply do better, sick or not. It makes sense. They ride through the first 9 months together. Their minds are bound to be connected on an elemental level. I knew they might heal better together rather than separately."

Jewel opened her eyes and saw James. She promptly frowned. "Ew! Dog breath! Why are you so close to me?"

"Homely girl!" James answered his sister. "You're the one in _my_ space!"

"I think they're better now," Natalia nodded on a half laugh.

The couple went to stop in and check on Lena next. She was still unconscious. From the worried expression on Andriev's face, they could tell she hadn't stirred even once. Andriev as well as MaryAnn and Manolito were in her room, talking with one another.

"Is she all right?" Natalia asked as her and Ragnar walked in.

MaryAnn was the one that answered. "We've put everything to rights and cleaned out all the brain bleeds. All she needs now is rest. She'll be fine," she said as she looked at Andriev, trying to reassure him and Natalia at the same time. Manolito reached out and took MaryAnn's hand in his, his pride at how well she had worked on Lena very apparent.

Natalia nodded as she sighed, slightly relieved. She kept looking over at the windows, though.

"Why do you keep watching the windows?" asked Ragnar.

She admitted, "I thought with the way she was injured that maybe Armand would come for her."

Ragnar frowned. "Armand? Why would-"

"He is her lifemate," Andriev filled him in. "But he was told not to come until she's 25."

Natalia didn't have the heart to tell Andriev that Lena had agreed with Armand that he was to come when she called him. She kept that piece of information to herself, though.

They went to go to Tanya's room last since she had had the most dire of injuries out of everyone. They had been told by Desari that Darius had had Gary come and hook up an IV for her to put fluids back into her body. "The vampire… what was that Gregori said about spores and her lungs?" Natalia asked Ragnar on their way down the hall to Tanya's room.

"They leave behind spores with parasites of their own making," said Ragnar to fill her in. "The parasites go into the body and infect it, destroy the organs, slowly try to make the life of the one living into hell on Earth. Gregori and Savannah no doubt worked the longest cleansing her of those organisms. And it seems they infected her lungs more than anything else."

Natalia frowned. "That's awful!"

They met Derek on his way out of the room. "Hey guys, I'm being sent to bed by the babysitter now," he laughed.

Savannah stuck her head out of the room. "You had an injury, too. Go to bed."

Derek smiled at them both and made his way down the hall back to the room he was sharing with Steve.

Natalia and Ragnar walked into Tanya's room.

"She'll be fine," Savannah was saying. "We'll change her IV and put it on a slow drip right before we go to ground. Gary will check on her in the daytime while we're sleeping and change the IV again. She should wake up by tomorrow night, but you never can tell exactly when a wake-up will happen in these cases."

Natalia sighed tiredly. "All right."

"You need rest, too," said Ragnar as he led her out of Tanya's room. On their way out of the room, Desari was on her way in. Ragnar asked, "Where can my lifemate rest?" as they stepped out into the long hallway, one arm protectively encasing Natalia close to him. Her eyes already looked like they were about to close though she was standing up.

"That room right down there," Desari pointed to an unoccupied room at the very end of the hall near a set of stairs.

"Thank you," said Ragnar as he ushered Natalia to her room.

They opened the door. The very tired young lady saw the bed and without any question crawled right on top of it and sat down. Instant fatigue was riding her shoulders, but she still did not yet lie down. "Where's Talon and Simon?" was her last curiosity that needed to be satisfied.

"They went back to the site of the attack with Darius to clean it up."

She shook her head sadly and then put it down on the soft, inviting pillow. Tears filled her eyes. "Those poor people," she said. "I'm going to have nightmares." Getting a chance to finally relax, she could now hear the memory of their screams in her head, remember the sight of their blood spattering the walls as some of the patrons had been literally ripped apart, limb from limb.

The memory of the sight of Tanya being grabbed and viciously bitten into would live on in her head for a long time, the sound of her friend's agonized scream from the searing pain...

Ragnar got into bed with her and sat next to her prone form. "Did you want me to stay here until you fell asleep?" he asked.

Natalia was touched that he'd actually asked. "Thank you, yes." She found herself asking the strangest thing. "Do you think you could also 'push' me into a deeper sleep before you go so I don't wake up while you're not here?" The thought of waking up without him truly bothered her! She decided not to analyze it and just accept it as fact.

Ragnar didn't think she would come to rely on him in any way so soon. He found himself shocked and his chest was full to bursting with emotion that she would so openly show such a need for him! "I will put you into a deep sleep and then I will remain here, as well. The window coverings here are of the blackout variety and I may stay safely throughout the day, but only if you wish it."

She nodded as she felt substantial relief that he would not leave. "Okay." She stood tiredly. "I'm going to go and take a shower first."

It occurred to Ragnar at that time that he could become a two-steps-forward one-step-back lifemate if he asked to accompany her into the shower the way he very much wanted to. So he kept his mouth shut, grateful for how far they had already come in such a short time, that she was even letting him remain with her while she slept. He watched her walk into the bathroom on her own and remained outside.

##

Sometime during the middle of the day, Lena opened her eyes and found Jewel sitting next to her bed. She smiled up at the girl with the pretty blue eyes that had quickly become one of her best friends and fell back into a deep sleep.

As for Tanya, she didn't awaken until almost two days later.

##

Tanya's eyes opened to see Derek sitting on one side of her bed in a chair and Natalia sitting on the other side in her own chair. Ragnar was pacing back and forth in front of her bed. The newly awakened girl found herself addressing the male Carpathian in particular. "I saw a man in my dreams and talked to him. He looked a lot like you," said her scratchy voice.

The three of them gawked at her. She had been unconscious for so long but her first words happened to be this? Derek helped her to sit up in bed. Her IV hadn't been necessary since the day before, so he knew she had to be thirsty. He got her a glass of water, held it to her lips. She drank a little bit at a time as Ragnar asked, "Did you talk to him for an extended time? Did he say his name? You said he appeared almost like myself?"

Tanya sat back, tired. Her eyes wanted to close again, but she felt compelled to say, "He did look like you, but his hair wasn't dark like yours- almost the same eye color as yours, though." She paused, took a breath and forced out, "He says to tell you that he knows now that 'you weren't the one that betrayed mother and father'. Even though I don't know what he was talking about, I for some reason know he thought it was you all of these years. That's the real reason he didn't want to see you." She shook her head. "But he said he realized he was wrong and that he would catch up to you soon… and he would find me."

Ragnar's eyes opened wide. "His name? Did he say his name?"

"Harek." Her eyes began to close. "He said that I was beautiful. But he's the one that was beautiful. _Beautiful_."

Natalia's heart almost jumped out of her chest. "Why does he want to catch up with you?"

Tanya sighed. "It doesn't really matter after all since it was just a dream, right?" And she was back to sleep again.

Natalia's eyes locked with Ragnar's first.

"Who is that guy?" asked Derek. "Why did she say all of that stuff? What's she talking about?"

"Harek is my brother," Ragnar admitted.

Derek shook his head. "She always did strange stuff in her dreams, but not like this."

"Well I've got my own strange feeling," said Natalia, "that Harek himself is going to come a knockin' on the front door in a day or two to see you and her, Ragnar."

Ragnar didn't want to hope, but he did.

##

By the end of the week, all of the young people, except Tanya, were up and about. The Dark Troubadours enjoyed hearing them in the kitchen in the mornings while they slept.

Late one evening while the couple sat in the room that she had been given while there, Natalia sighed tiredly, "I guess we leave here in three or four days. Hmm. I don't know. Maybe we have to wait more time for Tanya to get her strength back."

Ragnar pulled her in close to him.

She was curious about something. "Why does Andriev tell me I have 'Dragonseeker eyes'? Do you know what that means?"

"You know of the Dragonseekers, do you not?" asked Ragnar as he playfully bit at her shoulder.

She smacked at his upper leg playfully. "Yes, I do. Lena told me about them and the Wolves and the Jaguars…" She shrugged. "What does that have to do with me? I'm human."

Ragnar cocked his head to the side. "Andriev didn't tell you. I wonder why…"

"Tell me what?"

"You have Dragonseeker in your bloodline."

"What?"

"So you did not know? He never told you?"

"Yes, but I thought he was joking. He never exactly went in-depth with his explanations. I guess I wasn't really ready to hear it," she admitted.

"That is why you're a telekinetic," said Ragnar. "It comes from them. You have a small bit of Jaguar in you, as well but-"

"I _what_?"

"-not nearly as much as Dragonseeker."

"How the heck do you know this stuff?" she asked, amazed.

He paused and then began to explain. "Every Carpathian has a 'gift'… in Andriev's case, his became a curse. But mine is… I 'see' the blood content that makes up the person. I can see pure humans and I can see humans with other things added to them. There are many of them that are not 'pure' human. They would be horrified if they knew."

Her eyes were wide as she sat there. "So those with abilities are most likely mixed with some other race?"

"Usually, yes."

"So then what's Jewel?" she asked, becoming a little bit excited.

"I detect that Jewel has a very small strain of Dragonseeker in her. It's far back enough that any genes that activated the psionic mutation in her is a complete surprise. But that's what gave her those special abilities. I estimate that Jewel's grandfather was a mere eighth Dragonseeker. Why James has not manifested any abilities while has is only mildly strange, but I suspect he does communicate with his sister mentally and doesn't even realize it."

"And Tanya?"

"Tanya is a cross of both Wolf and Jaguar. They augmented one another and brought about her abilities. In her case it isn't surprising at all that her abilities have come to the forefront. As she ages, they will progress. One of her grandmothers on one side was a quarter Jaguar, enough that it went undetected by everyone and also most likely by that grandparent. But one of her parents is a full Wolf. I had no reason to before, but when I realized what it was I detected in both cousins, I checked Tanya and Derek's minds. They truly don't know anything about their heritage. Someone has been keeping secrets in that family and they have aligned themselves with Carpathians most likely for protection. I would like to have all of the women in her family checked to make certain no one else has abilities since they'll have to be protected from vampires that will find them outside of Carpathian protection."

"'Their heritage'? That means Derek, too?"

"Derek _will_ shift at some point in his life, yes," Ragnar nodded. "I sensed the bloodline in him and it's even stronger than it is in Tanya. Someone will have to speak with him about that so it isn't a surprise when it happens. I will ask that MaryAnn and Manolito do so before they depart."

"Lena?" asked Natalia, fascinated with his ability.

"Lena has a tiny bit of Dragonseeker from her mother's family and a tiny bit of Wolf from her father's father's family. But she has a very large concentration of Jaguar from her father's mother's side. It is the reason she has such strong and varied abilities. It seems the two small bits and the one large strain mixed with human caused a chain reaction in her genes."

"Can she shift into anything?" asked Natalia.

"No," he shook his head. "The three came together and gave her mental abilities, but they cancelled one another out and therefore she will never shift into Wolf or Jaguar while she's still human."

Natalia sat there, dazed. "WOW."

"She will, however, most likely shift easiest into those forms first should she convert to Carpathian."

Natalia grinned. "Oh, she's going to convert."

Ragnar lay down in bed and pulled her back with him, put his arms around her waist. "And you know this, because?"

"She told me. When her lifemate comes, she's converting. She's already decided."

Ragnar grew silent for a moment. "She loves him."

She looked down, shy to speak with him of love just yet, even someone else's. "She said she thinks it's because she was so young when she met him that that feeling overwhelmed her. She said she understands now why she needed to wait. But I can tell she's miserable without him. And he's in the ground waiting for her to call him to her."

There was a pain in Ragnar's chest at the thought of giving Natalia up for years, allowing himself to be chained into Earth. He shook his head. "He is older than I am. How was he able to do that?"

She sighed. "Maybe someday we'll ask him?"

Ragnar nodded as he very cleverly rolled and placed himself atop Natalia's form. "In the meantime, I have a question for you."

She felt a thrill run through her, but protested by slapping his chest. "Get off of me! I'm a LADY!"

But he wouldn't move. "Yes, _my_ lady."

She looked around as if she were seeking the answers in the corners of the room as to why he hadn't moved yet. "Um, why aren't you moving? You said 'yes, my lady!'"

"No, I agreed that you were my lady. I did not agree to move," he said as his head dipped and he began administering tiny love bites to her neck. Just one nip and he would be able to…

Ragnar found himself being telekinetically lifted into the air and suspended above his lifemate. "Natalia!"

She looked nothing short of smug as she said. "Permission. You will ask permission first before you bite me. Do you understand?"

He sighed and looked exasperated. "Yes, my lady."

"Good," she said as she stood and walked away.

"Are you going to put me down?"

"Okay."

She levitated him over to the area of the floor first and then let him drop. As he hit the floor with a 'thud!' Natalia found herself laughing out loud. Ragnar quickly stood up and she felt an inner thrill as he smiled playfully and chased her out of the room and down into the kitchen.

##

One night later, Natalia sat next to Tanya's bed as she slept. Ragnar was looking out of a window. He seemed to go on alert just as Tanya's eyes opened.

Tanya looked over at Natalia. "He's outside."

"Who's outside?" she asked.

She shook her head and seemed to 'come to'. "I'm sorry. I must have been dreaming. That was stupid of me to say, right?"

But Ragnar shook his head. "No. My brother_ is_ outside. I can sense him."

Before she could say a word, Ragnar opened her door and was downstairs with lightning speed. The other males of the house were there having sensed an unknown Carpathian outside.

"Who is it?" asked Darius.

"It is my brother!" said Ragnar.

"You are certain?"

But Ragnar went to the door and flung it open. And there stood his little brother.

Harek was only two inches shorter than Ragnar. He was also small in frame, leaner in muscle. In his eyes flashed instant recognition. "My brother," said Harek as if he were shocked. "You _are_ here."

"You truly didn't know?" he asked cautiously then, wondering how Harek didn't fully realize it was him.

He shook his head. He wore his very long platinum hair loose and nearly to his waist. He was wearing black leather and had a bike parked just outside the grounds. "I started feeling… things… a few nights ago. There was a woman in my dreams… she spoke to me." He looked at his brother as if he were pleading for information. "Skin, smooth, dark like onyx, long thin braids… A face that was beautiful… _Beautiful_," he said as if it ached to remember her. "I sense that she is here and she is mine," he said almost softly.

Natalia came up behind Ragnar hearing those words. She peeked around Ragnar and saw what she supposed was technically her brother-in-law. "Oh wow," she whispered on half a laugh. "Tanya's in for a _treat_."

Ragnar looked back and down at her, grinned halfway. "May my brother enter?" he asked as he then looked back at Darius.

Darius went to the door then and checked Harek mentally. He detected no sign of vampire in the Carpathian. "Enter, Harek Thorsen. But you must let me ask Tanya if she is willing to see you."

"Yes, of-" he stopped. "That is her name? Tanya?" he whispered in awe. "She wouldn't tell me, kept insisting she knew she was just dreaming… it made me wonder if she were real until the second I time I spoke to her."

"That is her name," confirmed Ragnar. "She is friend to my lifemate."

Harek's eyes widened as he looked at Natalia standing so closely behind his brother. His eyes lightened. "Congratulations, my brother! May I enter, please?"

"Come inside," said Darius. "I will go up and speak with Tanya now."

##

The three of them stood outside Tanya's door. Harek paced back and forth as Darius was inside speaking with Tanya and Derek. Derek walked out of the room first and looked Harek up and down. "I'm Derek, Tanya's cousin. What are your intentions with her?" he asked.

Harek nodded quickly as a Scandinavian escaped, "Ya! Nice to meet you. I think… I think my lifemate… your cousin is my lifemate," he halfway stammered.

Natalia wanted to melt into a puddle at his uncertainty and laugh out loud at the same time as Harek kept looking at the door behind Derek.

"The closer I come to her, the worse my emotions come upon me," he admitted. "The walls here are tan…" He looked at Derek, "I can see the light brown of your eyes." He looked at Natalia. "And I can see the Dragonseeker blood from her eye color alone." He looked back at Derek again. "I love Tanya."

Derek couldn't help but laugh at his eagerness. "Slow your roll. You have to meet her first. Go ahead. I was just messing with you."

Harek's eyes widened as he looked at Ragnar. His brother nodded him on. The uncertain Carpathian put his hand on the doorknob, turned it…

Darius was there, on the other side, about to leave the room. "She wishes to meet you. Go ahead."

The four people watched from the hall as Darius moved out of Harek's way and he caught sight of Tanya for the first time. You could see the rise and fall of both their chests as they began to breathe the same rhythm and their eyes locked for the first time. He forgot to close the door as he stepped forward. "I am Harek Thorsen… I am your lifemate." He paused, swallowed. "I love you," fell almost breathlessly from his lips. "You are beautiful… The most beautiful being I have ever-" he seemed to stop speaking then, suddenly embarrassed as he looked down at the ground.

Tanya seemed to be sitting there, words stuck in her throat as she looked up at the platinum Carpathian standing over her, eyes now downcast. Her eyes began to tear up. "Harek," she whispered. "I think you're beautiful, too…"

The air in the room was charged with tension as he looked back at her again and their eyes locked once more. Darius stepped forward then, grabbed the doorknob and closed the door on the new couple.

Natalia was standing there and Ragnar did a double-take as he looked down at her. Tears were rolling down her face. "Tali?" he asked her softly as his mind touched hers. But she was not sad. She was overwhelmed by what she had just seen.

"She loves him already… I can tell. Lena loved Armand at first sight… What is wrong with me that I didn't-"

"It was not you, beloved," Ragnar declared as his hand grabbed her face, firm and gentle. "My approach caused you to feel nothing but apprehension."

"You just didn't realize-" she made the excuse for him, "—you didn't know what you were doing."

"Exactly."

Darius intervened then. "My Tempest did not fall straight into my arms as she should have the first time we met…"

Natalia looked at Darius and then found herself laughing. He had made a joke!

Tempest walked up the steps then and put an arm around her lifemate. "He's making light of it now, but when we met, I was scared to death of him. And he did an excellent job with his approach. He was the gentlest of beings with me. I just wasn't ready. It happens. Everyone can't be like Harek and Tanya. And if I remember correctly, Lena said she loved Armand, but she was scared to death of him at first, too."

Natalia did feel somewhat better then to know there wasn't something wrong with her that she wasn't ready to run off and immediately begin her life with Ragnar. "Okay." She sighed. "I'm tired now." She looked over at Ragnar, glad he was there.

"Shall I put you to bed?"

"So long as you don't try anything this time or else I'll have to drop you on the floor again."

He smiled happily as he put an arm around her and began leading her down the hallway to her room. "As you wish, my lady."

* * *

_A/N - Only two chapters left in this story and then I am onto Lena's next! Yes, I will go back to Dark Promise and reopen it and recommence that story. It will take place on the heels of this one.  
_


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